Reconceiving Freedom from the Shadows of Slavery : Liberty in a Nonideal World

A historically-informed examination of the concept of freedom which recognises freedom as a fundamental social value that arose out of fights against slavery and oppression. This book will appeal to social and political philosophers and critical theorists interested in important political ideas and how they arise from historical contexts.

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.