The Meaning of Political Liberty According to Isaiah Berlin

Abstract

Many philosophers have already undertaken the task of presenting the negative and positive characteristics of political liberty. Isaiah Berlin’s famous lecture on two concept of liberty (1958) had a huge impact on the history of political thinking. I do not want to propose anything else than the interpretation of great political paradigms – the theories of Hobbes, Machiavelli, Rousseau and Constant – from Berlin’s viewpoint. While unravelling such a dualist pattern of political action, I will argue for the importance of communitarian responsibility which, in my opinion, has almost no place especially in this dichotomy.