有“免于匮乏的自由”吗?

Is There“Freedom From Want”?

自由的基本含义是指不受限制地做自己想做的事情。但是,自由主义者认为只有人为的恶意的限制才是不自由,自然和资源匮乏所施与的限制不能称为不自由。这是因为,前者包含道德意义,后者仅是一个自然事实。作为左翼的新自由主义者认为,对于穷人而言,仅仅具有不被限制地做某事的权利是没有意义的或只有形式的、虚假的意义,真正有意义的是一个人具有做某事的能力,因此,自由就是具有做出选择的手段和资源。这种自由观成为国家干预和福利主义政策的基础。但是,文章认为,若把免于匮乏定义为自由,将会导致自由概念的混乱,并会在实践上以为,自由的进步不在于限制权力、建立法治,而在于发展福利、实现平等。

The basic meaning of freedom is to be free to do what one wants to do without restraint.However, liberalists believe that only malicious and man-made restraint can be called non-freedomwhile restraint by nature or that resulting from want of resources cannot on the grounds that theformer is of moral significance while the latter is only a fact. However, leftists hold that as far as thepoor are concerned, to have only the rights to do something without restraint is of no significance atall-it issimply nominal and fictional, and what really counts is to be capable of doing something.Thus, freedom means to possess the means and resources to make choices. This conception offreedom has become the basis for government intervention and welfare policies. Nevertheless, thispaper points out that to define freedom as “freedom from want” will not only make the concept offreedom confusing but also make people believe that the improvement of freedom lies not in limitingpower or promoting the rule of law , but in promoting welfare and equality.