The Antinomy Between "Liberty" and "Equality"

On Isaiah Berlin and the Aporias of Modern Politics

Abstract

This article presents a methodological essay discussing the dichotomous approaches to intellectual history, with particular emphasis on political-intellectual history. It takes as a starting point the classic opposition proposed by Isaiah Berlin between two concepts of liberty: “negative liberty” and “positive liberty,” which correspond, respectively, to the principles of “equality” and “freedom.” This antinomy, later reinterpreted in analogous terms such as “mechanicism” and “organicism,” “atomism” and “holism,” among others, has served as the foundation for various narratives on the history of political thought.

The aim here is to highlight the limitations of these antinomies as frameworks for understanding different forms of thought, as they force all intellectual traditions into a highly restrictive and ultimately ahistorical schema, thereby obscuring the diversity and evolving nature of thought throughout history. Furthermore, as demonstrated, these antinomies prove to be inconsistent with their own premises, generating contradictions that ultimately undermine their intended purpose—a purpose that is, in fact, strongly overdetermined by ideological considerations.