First Cooper said it, and now, according to Virginia Postrel, David Hackett Fischer is saying it:

Fischer turns to etymology, establishing a contrast between liberty, whose Latin roots suggest release from bondage, and freedom, which shares Northern European origins with friend. ”The original meanings of freedom and liberty,” he writes, ”were not merely different but opposed. Liberty meant separation. Freedom implied connection.” He makes much of this distinction throughout the book, favoring ”freedom” and often disparaging ”liberty” (associating it, for instance, with Southern racism). Yet he also declares that the creative tension between the two concepts has given English-speaking people ”a distinctive dynamism in their thought about liberty and freedom.”

Not that I’m trying to stir up a controversy or anything.

Posted in uncategorized on December 20th, 2004 by Thibodeaux | RSS 2.0 |