Summary of Phil Parvin & Clare Chambers's Political Philosophy

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Freedom is one of the most important concepts in political philosophy. For many, the primary purpose of a legitimate political system is to protect the freedom of its citizens. But first we must determine what freedom is. Is it simply the ability to make choices without external interference. Or does freedom require particular circumstances.

#2 The idea of liberty is that an individual is free in so far as they are able to act without interference from external bodies or forces. This is the idea of liberty shared by thinkers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, as well as by classical liberal thinkers like F. A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises.

#3 According to this view, an individual is free if she is her own master and can make decisions based on her own ideals and purposes. However, this view of liberty is associated with thinkers like Jean Jacques Rousseau, who emphasized the communal nature of freedom.

#4 The first distinction between positive and negative liberty is the distinction between effective and formal freedom. According to Hayek, the specific sort of interference that undermines freedom is coercion, which he defined as such control of the environment or circumstances of a person by another that, in order to avoid greater evil, he is forced to act not according to a coherent plan of his own but to serve the ends of another.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822510371

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Insights on Phil Parvin & Clare Chambers's Political Philosophy

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Freedom is one of the most important concepts in political philosophy. For many, the primary purpose of a legitimate political system is to protect the freedom of its citizens. But first we must determine what freedom is. Is it simply the ability to make choices without external interference. Or does freedom require particular circumstances.

#2

The idea of liberty is that an individual is free in so far as they are able to act without interference from external bodies or forces. This is the idea of liberty shared by thinkers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, as well as by classical liberal thinkers like F. A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises.

#3

According to this view, an individual is free if she is her own master and can make decisions based on her own ideals and purposes. However, this view of liberty is associated with thinkers like Jean Jacques Rousseau, who emphasized the communal nature of freedom.

#4

The first distinction between positive and negative liberty is the distinction between effective and formal freedom. According to Hayek, the specific sort of interference that undermines freedom is coercion, which he defined as such control of the environment or circumstances of a person by another that, in order to avoid greater evil, he is forced to act not according to a coherent plan of his own but to serve the ends of another.

#5

A negative conception of liberty argues that the state should keep out of people’s lives as much as possible, while a positive conception of liberty argues that the state should actively intervene in people’s lives and provide them with what they need.

#6

The distinction between negative and positive liberty is used by its defenders to justify a minimal state, while the latter argue that states should not intervene in market transactions to redistribute wealth and resources to the poor, because while their freedom to use it for particular ends may be constrained by their poverty, their freedom itself is not constrained by lack of wealth.

#7

Thatcher, who was leader of the UK Conservative Party in 1975, quickly sought to galvanize the party around a new and dramatically reformist ideology. She was deeply impressed with Hayek’s ideas.

#8

The third conception of liberty is presented by Philip Pettit in his book Republicanism. He argues that freedom is not just about non-interference, but also about lack of domination, where domination is understood as being subject to an individual, group, or institution that has the ability to interfere in our choices on an arbitrary basis.

#9

The argument that free markets and minimal states violate negative freedom is that poverty entails human interference, and thus an infringement of negative freedom. The rules of private property are inevitable, and so enforcing them is not a form of interference.

#10

The first distinction between positive and negative liberty is between formal and effective freedom. For negative liberty theorists, a constraint on freedom must be deliberately imposed by another human being.