David S: > Here is a theory. "Money libertarians," as you call them, are the > contemporary descenants of 19th Century "Liberalism," which term is rooted in > "Libertas," and Libertas is at root a legal status of a free-man (i.e. not a > slave). The term "freedom," on the other hand, through the efforts of > Germans like Hegel, and then transmitted to the English speaking world > through interpreters like T.H. Green, became associated with what you call > "positive freedom" (i.e. a free-man who makes a bad choice, or is limited by > circumstance in making choices, is not really "free"). Therefore, to "money > libertarians." liberty is a status relationship between man and the state, > while for the modern day Hegelians, freedom is more of a psychological state > of a man. Money libertarians, aware (contra Mr. Andrews) of the efforts of > the modern day Hegelians to minimize the importance of legal status in order > to justify state power, therefore, prefer "liberty" rather than "freedom" as > the ideal.<
^^^^^ CB: Oh I just remembered what you are getting at on Hegel.. He is famous for the philosophical aphorism: Freedom is the mastery of necessity. This is essentially the fundamental idea of materialist postive freedom, material not psychological, but positive. Without fullfillment of material necessities, one can't exercise psychological/mental freedom such as free speech, free association, freedom of religion, freedom of press. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
