4
FREEDOM -
WITH BOUNDARIES
Wolfgang Huber, Germany
4.1 Freedom From and Freedom For
The difficulty of defining the concept of freedom^19 is demonstrated
by the fact that dictionaries often take refuge in a negative definition,
where freedom is seen as the absence of coercion. Such a purely nega-
tive definition is not sufficient, however. It is obvious that freedom can-
not be understood only as “freedom from” but is also “freedom for” Yet
how are negative and positive freedoms related to each other?
Peter Bieri has aptly described freedom as “the feeling that we are
the author of our will and the subject of our life”.^20 Freedom is a particu-
lar trait in the way human beings understand themselves, specifically the
confidence to give a particular direction to their own lives, and the abil-
ity to choose from several options as far as this is concerned.
19
This article was originally published in German, translated to English by Ste-
phen Brown. Translator's note: In several places this translation draws upon
Wolfgang Huber, Ethics: The Fundamental Questions of Our Lives, translated
by Brian McNeil (Georgetown University Press, 2015). 20
Peter Bieri, Das Handwerk der Freiheit. Über die Entdeckung des eigenen
Willens (Munich/Vienna: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2001), 73; (ET: Huber, Ethics,
translated by Brian McNeil, 3).