Liberty

Revision as of 09:07, 29 September 2014

Liberty is the condition of being free from any form of arbitrary control. The term is closely related to Freedom and is sometimes used synonymously with that term, however, freedom usually also refers to having the ability or means to express liberty to a desired extent.

For example, take a hypothetical society in which all real property and all roadways are privately owned, and all owners have unimpeded leaway to control the use and access to their property. Now imagine that Bob owned a house in a housing tract along a road owned by Alice. For years, Alice has allowed all home owners to use the road for access to their property, but one day, while Bob was sleeping, she closed off access to Bob and anyone coming or going to his house. And the property-owners surrounding Bob's property also excluded Bob from their property. Bob would be stuck in his house and would not be able to leave, have visitors, or even get provisions to survive. Bob would have liberty, but he would not have freedom.

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