ABSTRACT
The negative conception of freedom gets its name from defining freedom in a merely negative way, as the absence of something. F. A. Hayek starts his exposition of freedom by clarifying what coercion means. Coercion can take two forms: whereas constraints force people to do certain things, restraints prevent people from performing certain actions. Hayek argues that one's freedom is coerced only when another agent has deliberately attempted to change his course of action. He gives various examples to demonstrate that one cannot coerce another's freedom unintentionally. Hayek wants to argue that all coercion is bad, even when its consequences are ultimately beneficial to the coerced person, or when it improves the social welfare. A hierarchical order of values would be imposed on the free choices of people, leading to 'totalitarianism' and a loss of individual liberty. Hayek's three criteria of freedom are not compatible; they yield opposite results when applied to concrete cases.
