Liberty as Independence (with Quentin Skinner)
From Interventions | The Intellectual History Podcast by Interventions
July 21, 2025 · 1h 1m
About this episode
Quentin Skinner discusses the transformation of the concept of liberty from independence to negative liberty in the context of political discourse leading up to the American Revolution.
Sometime in the eighteenth century, a great transformation took place in the language of liberty. Since the days of the Roman Republic, to be free had meant to be independent of the arbitrary will of another. You enjoyed freedom if nobody could impose their will on you without your prior consent. You were free if you were your own master, and you were unfree to the extent that you answered to anyone else. This was the concept of liberty which dominated political discourse in England until the outbreak of the American Revolution and Revolutionary War. How it gave way in the wake of the Declaration of Independence to the idea of freedom as absence of restraint — to the concept of negative liberty — is the question that Quentin Skinner, the doyen of intellectual historians in the English-speaking world, attempts to answer. In doing so, he also questions whether the road that was taken was the right one for a democratic society to take. In order to be free, is it enough that we encounter no obstruction on our way, or is something more, and more fundamental, required?
People in this episode
Host: Interventions
Guest: Quentin Skinner
Topics covered
- liberty
- independence
- political discourse
- negative liberty
- democratic society
- intellectual history
Keywords
- liberty
- independence
- Quentin Skinner
- negative liberty
- political discourse
- American Revolution
- intellectual history
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Declaration of Independence
Places: England
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