The Conception of Liberty - from the Enlightenment towards Liberalism

Aspiration of freedom as a core value is embedded in European culture. Conception of liberty is firmly placed in the center of heated debates over political, economic, social and cultural issues. A society itself is repeatedly being esteemed as more or less civilized in accordance to the amount of freedom that is at its members’ disposal. At the same time, the implication of the concept of liberty is often not being discerned. The conjunction of the conception of liberty elaborated in the Enlightenment epoch and the one accepted in the discourse of liberalism is being outlined in the article. Core ideas of these conceptions are being examined: a person’s autonomy, individual rights, private sphere, social contract, state of nature. The dependence of modern socio-political polemic on the Enlightenment and liberal conceptions of liberty is being demonstrated. The totalitarian substance of the apprehension of freedom as a generic value is being stressed out.