Two concepts of liberty
The philosopher Isaiah Berlin coined the "two concepts of liberty" in an essay by the same name in 1958. The two concepts are negative liberty and positive liberty.
Negative liberty is having freedom from interference from others and outside constraints. We are free to operate within a defined zone safe from interference.
Positive liberty is having freedom to do something based on our own free will. We are free to pursue and achieve our goals without any constraints.
Freedom from versus freedom to: it's a subtle difference, and both concepts of liberty are valid. But it makes this idea of liberty and freedom super complicated…
I began to think about how this may apply to how we interact with the concept of freedom as musical leaders.
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Negative liberty (freedom "from")
I find that this is the kind of freedom we fight for the most. We focus on freedom “from” interference:
Freedom from censorship - being told what you can’t do, being told what you must do
Freedom from structures of inequality - racial inequality, discrepancies in pay, many different forms of bias
Freedom from dictatorship (like from a conductor) - arbitrary decisions of an individual in authority
We care a lot about this and this is what we fight for. In a way, it is focused on protection. Protection from dangers that would interfere with our freedom. It is also reactionary. Something usually happened in the past to jeopardize our freedom. It makes sense because we've been scarred by our past experiences and we create a safe zone where we are free from outside interference.
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Positive liberty - (free “to”)
This is often described with “I am my own master.”
It may seem like freedom “to” is simple, but it’s perhaps more complicated than negative liberty.
There are two complicating factors:
One’s ability to fully “be their own master” is dependent on 1) the way the world provides quality of access to opportunities and 2) our own self-control and self-understanding.
- Not everyone is indeed “free” to be their own master because they may not have the same access to favorable conditions as the person next to them.
- Not everyone has coherent, clear goals from which to make our decisions toward being our own master. We also all have impulses that get in the way of our rational thinking.
When we have the freedom to do anything we want, how many of us can truly articulate a response with integrity, rationality, and clarity? Do we actually know what we want? Have we ever thought about it? Do we understand our own impulses and have we practiced thinking rationally despite our impulses? Are we naturally limited in some way because of our circumstances and life experience, as compared to others?
Contrary to negative freedom, this is not reactionary and begins as something nonspecific because there wasn’t anything that triggered our desire to be free “to” be our own master. Therefore, it is a harder concept to grasp. We’ve never really been asked those questions!
And how would it work within a group dynamic? In a group, in addition to being our own master, we are responsible for having the freedom to do what is rational for the greater good of the group. How could leaders help their people discover these pathways to positive liberty?
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Perhaps if we start grappling with these uncomfortable challenges that emerge from the idea of positive liberty, we can find a way to expand our freedom efforts beyond that of protection and reaction (negative liberty or freedom “from”).
We can deepen our search for freedom to aspects of positive liberty where we might imagine musicians being driven by their own purpose that serves as their inner compass. And perhaps to be able to recognize the unfairness that is inherent in how we define our compass versus how others define it.
Then within a group, we can find ways to allow people the freedom “to” strive toward using their own purpose to serve the greater good of the group.
I think the key is to define what that is: what do we want to be free to do?
And I think it's important to consider what might positive liberty (freedom “to”) look like in a large ensemble?
Freedom to show up as the person you’d be with your family and friends.
Freedom to have your own ideas on how you want to perform something.
Freedom to have a say in creating the group working environment.
Freedom to say what's on your mind about your goals and what you want to get out of your work.
Freedom to articulate how you contribute to the greater goal of the group.
Freedom to dream about how you want to be better (in all sorts of ways).
Freedom to dream about how you’d hope for the group to be better.
As leaders, a part of our job is to help our people navigate and discover these pathways to positive liberty despite its complicated nature.
If you’re intrigued by Isaiah Berlin’s two concepts of liberty here is a clear and intriguing overview.
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