Isaiah Berlin: Two Concepts of Liberty 

One of the most interesting subjects I have seen in this channel, it structures many thoughts I have been having

These are fantastic videos, thank you taking the time to make them

Fascinating explanation; I was getting bogged down in research and you have cleared things up for me. Interesitng, and well presented. Thank you so much.

I feel every time I start tussling with an idea in my head, you've got a video for it. For that, I'm infinitely in your debt. Thank you so much for the work you do.

Thank God there’s a then & now video about this because reading berlin’s actual article is like having two opposing views play tug-of-war with your brain.

Thank you for the time and work you put into these videos. I wonder what Berlin would have thought, if he could see peoples submission and happy surrender to any master willing to lift the burden of decisions off their backs.

Thank you so much for linking to the Two Concepts of Liberty pdf. Much appreciated!

I love how topical your videos are without laying into the more controversial examples of the day that may turn away some from your videos.

This is the best video I've seen on this topic - so helpful, thank you very much!

Can't wait for next episode. 😃

It would be absolutely wonderful to get Berlin's perspective on the modern world and the growing debate over peoples willingness to surrender their own privacy in the pursuit of convenience.

Thanks a lot for the useful observation of the two principles. It helped me!

Your work is always amazing!

This is such a good explanation

The key question here is one of Knowledge in relation to Power. Rhetoric is a problem, as Plato Argued.

Very clear, thank you

Thank you

Love from India😊

Helpful❤️

So highly pertinent with today’s discussions on covid vaccines and whether government measures to safeguard the vaccinated majority of society, by cutting off those who *freely* choose not to vaccinate, are justified or not.

will the nozick criticism video come out soon? x

Not a lot of other video essays out there on Berlin.

As always, what a simple, accurate, and nice explanation. Does anyone know if we can cite those videos as a reference for a final degree thesis? Huge thank you !!

I actually first heard of this concept through The Handmaid's Tale.

The masking controversy brought me here... pondering the idea of the American Dream and how the lives and well-being of one's neighbors are never included along with the white picket fence, 2.5 children, big back yard, etc.

Ačiū!

I disagree with the statement “to be free is to know what’s best for us”. In line with Dostoyevsky I argue freedom is to do what you wish at the benefit or detriment of oneself. Freedom doesn’t implicate an urge of well being, we act freely to ruin ourselves all the time.

I'm still can't see how "positive freedom" is a form of political freedom. It just seems to be conflating freedom with capacity or self-development.

Do capitalism, socialism and democracy (schumpeter) next !!!!

Here because i watch AOT

I honestly feel like I've completely misinterpreted Freedom To and Freedom From, Freedom To to me is your ability to achieve or do something and Freedom From is your ability to not experience certain events. For example I might want to jump on the bus tomorrow to get to a destination (freedom to travel) but I have a freedom from the passenger who speaks incredibly loud next to me (freedom from noise). This sounds like the latter is completely not considered.

Sometimes I found my roommates regretted after playing video games for a whole day during the weekend before the exam. Maybe that's how positive liberty is illustrated.

I prefer Hegel's idea of freedom as a capacity for self-determination

How does the concepts of freedom help humanity? Is it a concept that today is more harmful that helpful? Can humans thrive without this concept?

Inculcation can be described as the imposition of culture. Early in life we can be exposed to parental and other modeling of behavior, and later, thoughts, rationalizations, and beliefs. Deluded directly atrocious antisocial behaviors, assertions, and beliefs are thus imprinted. In our species, babies appear to be pre-armed with the disposition to survive through pleasing expressions, including imitation. Because comment must be severely truncated, only such notes on evolved social behaviors can fit here. But you can see how evolution favoring survival of such altricial individuals as humans, as we are, with so many years of direct physical dependency and lifelong emotional and cognitive dependency, includes the hormonal and neural systemic response to inclusion. Therefore, sincerity, as well as hedonic pleasure of inclusion, leading to effort - right up to messianic reinforcement of belief and development of coherent systems of rationalization of beliefs - are universal among us. We persuade, in order to survive, reproduce, and persuade others to gain or retain the social niche and status we crave. Abuse by those adult models can prevent us from fully persuading ourselves, a condition described in the psychological literature. Various aspects of the flawed cognition that arise, are called callous psychopathy, Machiavellianism, the two typologies of Narcissism, and the odd resentful satisfactions of Sadism. Abuse leads to unreflective cognitive deficits, Borderline personality disorder. Abuse can be as seemingly minor as neglect in childhood, most often perceived by adults as a minor or necessary behavioral and emotional failure, excused by exhaustion. Yet, breding resentment, which massively, violently, distorts a child's concept of freedom, results in its being used as rationale for dismissiveness, hierarchical discrimination, normalization of violence, decepption, dissimulation,, and lethal violence as acceptable social norms. Essentially they become or ARE social norms. Coercion, claimed as necessary due to such aberrant inculcation and consequent acculturation, is perceived by the damaged individuals of too many cultures as acceptable norms and normative tools. A few indigenous cultures, those not using exogenous neuromodulators as "recreation" , teach greater attentiveness, empathy, and affiliative recognition to ALL other life. All, though, are affected by exploitation imposed by aberrant individuals, groups, cultures, and respond defensively. That very defense is easily overstretched into pre-emption. "freedom is something i want/need, while i associate coercion with anything YOU do", as we continue to violently destroy the intimacy natural to us, the connectedness that allows trust, with which we were born.

If human kind is fallen, original sin, you can’t be free from indwelling sin unless you are rescued from it, I.e. born again. An, where does this lie?

This distinction between negative and positive liberty seems biased. Let's look at a simple example and see how it cannot properly capture liberty. You want to buy groceries, but you are prevented from entering the grocery story by armed guards. --Is this positive or negative liberty infringement? You want to buy groceries, but you don't have enough money. --Is this positive or negative liberty infringement?

Aw, the cute binary that defines Western thinking. *sigh*