One Concept of Liberty: Towards Writing the History of a Political Concept

It is often assumed that European thought contained several conceptually distinct and equally influential notions of liberty. The article challenges this perception, arguing that European history was dominated by one concept of liberty. It attempts to show that the tendency to dismiss the idea of on...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the history of ideas Vol. 71; no. 2; pp. 219 - 240
Main Author Podoksik, Efraim
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hanover, PA University of Pennsylvania Press 01.04.2010
Subjects
Conceptualization
Democracy
Europe
Freedom
Historicism
History of ideas
Liberalism
Paradigms
Philosophy
Philosophy of history
Philosophy of history. Social and political philosophy. Philosophy of law
Political discourse
Political thought
Republicanism
Slaves
Tyranny
War
Words
Liberty;Freedom
Evolution
History philosophy
Politics
History
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Summary:It is often assumed that European thought contained several conceptually distinct and equally influential notions of liberty. The article challenges this perception, arguing that European history was dominated by one concept of liberty. It attempts to show that the tendency to dismiss the idea of one concept of liberty is premature. Such an attitude is caused either by misplaced interpretations of ancient texts, by exaggerated historicism, or by an anachronistic reading of early modern political thought. The article suggests that the paradigm change is in order, and that the time is ripe for composing a history of one concept of liberty.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:0022-5037
1086-3222
1086-3222
DOI:10.1353/jhi.0.0078