Q. Consider the following statements with regard to the idea of liberty:
1. Negative Liberty is concerned with the recognition of a minimum area in which the individual can act unobstructed by others.
2. Positive Liberty recognizes that an individual can be free only in society and not outside of it.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Exp) Option c is the correct answer.
Statement 1 is correct. ‘Negative liberty’ seeks to define and defend an area in which the individual would be inviolable, in which he or she could ‘do, be or become’ whatever he or she wished to ‘do, be or become’. This is an area in which no external authority can interfere. It is a minimum area that is sacred and in which whatever the individual does, is not to be interfered with. The existence of the ‘minimum area of non-interference’ is the recognition that human nature and human dignity need an area where the person can act unobstructed by others.
Statement 2 is correct. Positive liberty recognizes that an individual can be free only in society (not outside it) and hence tries to make that society such that it enables the development of the individual whereas negative liberty is only concerned with the inviolable area of non-interference and not with the conditions in society, outside this area, as such.
