Abstract

The aim of the paper is an attempt at ontological analysis of the concept of political freedom (liberty) using the recognition and understanding of the concept of freedom (moral and political, negative and positive) in the history of philosophy. I refer, among others, to three known concepts: (1) Isaiah Berlin's distinction between positive and negative liberty, (2) Hannah Arendt historical analysis related to the distinction between political freedom and freedom of the will (moral freedom), and (3) Nicolai Hartmann's interpretation, criticism, and complement of Kant’s concept of freedom of the will. In the end, I try to use these ontological analyses to argue that negative liberty (which finds its realization in the first generation of human rights) is a necessary condition for moral freedom.