Synopses & Reviews
When is it correct to say that a person's freedom is restricted? Kristján Kristjánsson offers a critical analysis of the main components of a theory of negative liberty: the nature of obstacles and constraints, the weight of obstacles, and the relation of freedom to power and autonomy. Through this discussion, which examines much of the contemporary work on political freedom, he develops his own theory of negative liberty, the so-called "responsibility view", which meets many of the goals of advocates of positive liberty while retaining its distinctive "negative" nature.
Review
"...lucid and useful book....Social Freedom is a book with many virtues and few imperfections. Its wide-ranging discussion of the various positions in the debate on freedom serves as a useful survey, and the level of argumentation is generally high. The discussion proceeds in a careful and focused manner, and is often very convincing. Kristjansson's tyle is formal and clear, every so often there is a charming, and sometimes very Icelandic flash of color..." - Andrew Bailey, Philosophy in Review
Synopsis
This comprehensive overview of debates on political freedom develops a theory of negative liberty.
About the Author
Kristján Kristjánsson received his PhD from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He has taught at the University of Akureyri, Iceland, and later at the University of Iceland where he is currently Professor of Philosophy of Education. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University, the University of Konstanz, St Edmund's College, Cambridge University, and the Institute of Education, University of London. He has written five books in English (published by Cambridge University Press, Routledge and Ashgate) and three in Icelandic. His latest book is The Self and Its Emotions (Cambridge University Press, 2010). He has published numerous articles on topics in education, moral philosophy and emotion theory in international journals. He is a member of the International Society for Study of the Emotions, and on the editorial board of the Journal of Moral Education.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: freedom from Berlin onwards; 2. Negative freedom: the nature of constraints; 3. Obstacles and their weight; 4. The test of moral responsibility; 5. Internal bars and positive liberty; 6. Freedom and power; 7. Observations on method; 8. Concluding remarks; Bibliography; Index.