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Repensar a liberdade dos modernos : a relação do paradigma das duas liberdades de Benjamin Constant com a história da liberdade de Lord Acton
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Abstract(s)
"A Liberdade política é o mais poderoso, o mais enérgico meio de aperfeiçoamento que o Céu nos concedeu". Este projecto propõe uma investigação fundamentada no pensamento de dois pais fundadores do liberalismo, Benjamin Constant e Lord Acton, com o objectivo último de perceber as raízes e a origem da liberdade no ocidente. A demanda ocidental pela liberdade civil, que conduz ao liberalismo, suscita a pergunta que Isaiah Berlin formulou no seu ensaio ‘Dois Conceitos de Liberdade’ que permanece ineludível na generalidade: ‘O que fez a protecção da liberdade individual tão sagrada’ para o homem moderno? Aquilo que nos distingue enquanto ocidentais, a liberdade, e a história em que foi forjada, é algo que deve estar gravado de forma inexorável na nossa memória colectiva, de forma consciente. Pois só a auto-consciência de um povo tem força para manter viva a defesa da liberdade, esse “dom precioso que os céus deram ao homem”. Lord Acton sugere a existência de um momento inaugural da liberdade civil. Acton considera que este conceito de liberdade nasceu há 20 séculos, e não nos séculos XVIII e XIX, com o liberalismo. Ou seja, a liberdade negativa não seria um produto da modernidade, mas “o fruto delicado de uma civilização madura”. O objecto desta tese é mostrar que, como afirma Constant, a liberdade passou, de facto, por uma grande mutação conceptual. Contudo, o ponto de viragem pode ter acontecido há 2000 anos, com a aurora de uma nova realidade cultural, como Acton defende na sua história da liberdade, e não há 200, com a modernidade saída das revoluções liberais. Como corolário, a investigação desta dissertação de mestrado quer responder à pergunta: Qual é a relação entre o paradigma das duas liberdades e a História da Liberdade?
"Political liberty is the most powerful, most energetic way of refinement that the Heavens have granted us". This project proposes to investigate the thought of two founding fathers of liberalism, Benjamin Constant and Lord Acton, so as to understand the roots of liberty in the West. The western quest for civil liberty, which leads to liberalism, prompts the question that Isaiah Berlin asked on his essay “Two Concepts of Liberty”, which remains indispensable: “What made the protection of individual liberty so sacred”? What distinguishes us as westerners, liberty and its history, is something that should be deeply ingrained in our collective memory. In fact, only the self-awareness of a people has the strength to keep the defense of liberty alive, that “precious gift which the Heavens gave to man”. Lord Acton suggests the existence of an inaugural moment of civil liberty. Acton further thinks that he concept of liberty was born twenty centuries ago, and not in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, with liberalism. In other words, negative liberty would not be a product of modernity, but the “delicate fruit of a mature civilization”. This thesis wishes to show that liberty, as Constant affirmed, underwent a significant conceptual shift. However, the turning point could have happened 2000 years ago, with the dawn of a new cultural reality, as Acton suggests, and not 200 years ago, with the liberal revolutions. As a corollary, this Masters dissertation aims to answer the following question: What is the relationship between the paradigm of the two liberties and the History of Liberty?
"Political liberty is the most powerful, most energetic way of refinement that the Heavens have granted us". This project proposes to investigate the thought of two founding fathers of liberalism, Benjamin Constant and Lord Acton, so as to understand the roots of liberty in the West. The western quest for civil liberty, which leads to liberalism, prompts the question that Isaiah Berlin asked on his essay “Two Concepts of Liberty”, which remains indispensable: “What made the protection of individual liberty so sacred”? What distinguishes us as westerners, liberty and its history, is something that should be deeply ingrained in our collective memory. In fact, only the self-awareness of a people has the strength to keep the defense of liberty alive, that “precious gift which the Heavens gave to man”. Lord Acton suggests the existence of an inaugural moment of civil liberty. Acton further thinks that he concept of liberty was born twenty centuries ago, and not in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, with liberalism. In other words, negative liberty would not be a product of modernity, but the “delicate fruit of a mature civilization”. This thesis wishes to show that liberty, as Constant affirmed, underwent a significant conceptual shift. However, the turning point could have happened 2000 years ago, with the dawn of a new cultural reality, as Acton suggests, and not 200 years ago, with the liberal revolutions. As a corollary, this Masters dissertation aims to answer the following question: What is the relationship between the paradigm of the two liberties and the History of Liberty?