Reconceiving Freedom from the Shadows of Slavery

In a departure from standard approaches to the concept of liberty, in this book John Christman locates and defends the concept of freedom as a fundamental social value that arose out of fights against slavery and oppression. Seen in this light, liberty must be understood as requiring more than mere non-interference or non-domination - it requires the capacity for self-government and the capabilities needed to pursue valued activities, practices, and ways of life. Christman analyses the emergence of freedom as a concept through nineteenth- and twentieth-century struggles against slavery and other oppressive social forms, and argues that a specifically positive conception best reflects its origins and is philosophically defensible in its own right. What results is a model of freedom that captures its fundamental value both as central to the theoretical architecture of constitutional democracies and as an aspiration for those striving for liberation.

• | Author: John Christman
• | Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• | Publication Date: Jan 09, 2025
• | Number of Pages: 00264 pages
• | Binding: Hardback or Cased Book
• | ISBN-10: 1009440209
• | ISBN-13: 9781009440202