LIBERTY AND HAPPINESS

Identify an individual or group of individuals who have continued to pursue liberty and happiness in the twentieth century and beyond

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

'Freedom' and 'liberty' mean the same. In 20th century political philosophy some have favored a 'negative' concept of liberty (freedom from constraint) and criticized 'positive' notions of liberty ('freedom to') as incipiently authoritarian. According to Rawls every liberty is both negative and positive. That there is a certain liberty means that a certain person (or persons, or all persons) is (are) not under certain constraints, so that they can do a certain sort of thing (see p. 202).

There are many possible liberties, including freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, religious freedom, freedom of the person (the rule of law, freedom from arbitrary arrest), freedom to acquire private property, certain political rights (the right to vote, to stand for office), etc. (American constitutional debates have produced a large literature on these topics; see for example M. Konvitz, Fundamental Liberties of a Free People.) Rawls does not discuss these in detail.

Those who are poor, ignorant, lack the means, may not be able to take advantage of their rights (or liberties). Some writers have suggested that such circumstances (e.g. poverty) may violate such rights, thus building into the concept of the right the circumstances that make it possible to exercise it. Rawls does not follow this line. He does not say that poverty etc. violate or restrict the right; he says that they diminish its worth or value to the individual who has it. Thus he distinguishes between the right or liberty and its value or worth.

The system of liberties

Although the special conception does not allow liberty to be traded for any other primary good, it does allow liberty to be restricted for the sake of liberty. Rawls assumes that liberties are many, that they sometimes conflict, that restricting some freedom in certain respects may increase other freedoms in certain respects (e.g. restricting freedom to hold protest marches may increase freedom of movement). He notes two possible cases of restriction:

(1) everyone may continue to have equal liberty, but less than they would have had without the restriction;

(2) the liberty of some may be restricted ...