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Full Idea
The liberty of the ancients was their active participation in the exercise of political power, not the peaceful enjoyment of personal independence.
Gist of Idea
Ancient freedom was free participation in politics, not private independence of life
Source
Will Kymlicka (Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) [1990], 7.2.a)
Book Ref
Kymlicka,Will: 'Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn)' [OUP 1992], p.250
A Reaction
Interesting. It takes a feat of imagination to grasp a world where the desire for freedom to sit at home and compile a database of philosophical ideas never even crossed anyone's mind.
| 20092 | One principle of liberty is to take turns ruling and being ruled [Aristotle] |
| 19924 | The freest state is a rational one, where people can submit themselves to reason [Spinoza] |
| 19871 | Freedom is not absence of laws, but living under laws arrived at by consent [Locke] |
| 5621 | The existence of reason depends on the freedom of citizens to agree, doubt and veto ideas [Kant] |
| 22085 | Freedom requires us to submit to a family, or a corporation, or a state [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
| 23818 | We have liberty in the space between nature and accepted authority [Weil] |
| 21017 | Political freedom is an incoherent project, because some freedoms limit other freedoms [Nussbaum] |
| 18661 | Ancient freedom was free participation in politics, not private independence of life [Kymlicka] |