POLI 231 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Negative Liberty, Positive Liberty, Chinese Head Tax In Canada
17 May 2018
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POLI231
Lecture 18 – 20 March 2018
Video: Chris Wiley and Cambridge Analytica
• Talks about Facebook and republican party’s impact on voting elections
• Wants to hold social media to account; is intimidated by large groups as he speaks out
• Thinks social media is manipulation people based on personality traits, rather than using
persuasive argument → playing on psychological makeup, insecurities, vulnerabilities
• Wiley has seen this manipulation operationalized
• Voter manipulation is detrimental to universities → it is a breach of research ethics; there are
rules against it in Canada → people will not want to take part in academic research as they do
not know if they are signing up to give away their data, their friends’ data, and ultimately be
manipulated
This video shows us the relevance of Socrates today: Socrates said that he could have
persuaded the Athenians by bringing in his family and gaining their sympathy. He said there are
two main ways to persuade:
1. Rational argument
2. Find out what your audience is like and play on this in order to convince them
• What are the rules by which we engage in political persuasion?
• How is it different from manipulation?
Berlin, continued:
• An understanding that derives from the enlightenment is that all conflicts in society arise
from irrationality → Berlin thinks we should give this up
• Berlin thinks that sometimes we must prioritize or make compromises in terms of our values
• People have different values, can disagree on the ends of social and political life, and
therefore order their values differently → this is why it is important that people are free to
choose their own ends
• Berlin wants us to acknowledge tradeoffs, moral losses and moral remainders. All of the
things that we want are not always compatible
• The ends we want are varied and this is why we cannot have a monistic answer to politics
• Some measure of negative liberty is necessary for people to pursue different ends
Berlin’s critique of the late 1950s: people who were subject to Western colonialism moved for
decolonization
• Massive conflict arose as the colonized peoples insisted on their desire for self-determination
• Berlin puts forth that freedom is not the same as ruling your own society → the colonized
peoples were not trying to get freedom (however, wanting to rule themselves does fit with
positive liberty)
• Instead, Berlin thinks the colonized people wanted a certain status in social society. They do
not want to be considered inferior; they want equality as peoples
- Berlin notes that achieving this status does not mean the colonized peoples will have less
interference from government → being ruled by your own people does not mean you are
more free
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