Abstract:
Isaiah Berlin is one of the key figures who has dominated the field of social freedom with his distinction between negative and positive conceptions of freedom. In this dissertation, I have argued that analyzing freedom in terms of various components of freedom would be able to provide a better framework than Berlin's categorization which places diverse theories of freedom into two pigeonholes. First, I have offered four components of freedom, which are the interpersonal, institutional, mental dispositional, and exercise components. After evaluating these components, I compared different theories of freedom with respect to these components. Then, I have answered Berlin's charge against positive freedom that it paves the way for totalitarianism, by defending a minimal account of positive freedom. Lastly, I have argued that we can force people into freedom in some limited cases. So, being forced to be free is not necessarily paradoxical.
