ABSTRACT
In western political philosophy, debates about freedom have been based around a contrast between negative and positive liberty. At its simplest, the difference amounts to this: negative freedom consists in the absence of something, while positive freedom consists in the presence of something. The contrast can be made clearer if expressed in terms of obstacles to freedom, things that can undermine or constrain freedom. The three types of conditions of freedom can be summarised as the Non-interference Condition—being left alone to act; the Autonomy Condition —having the capacity to make rational choices about which action to take; and the Power Condition—having the powers to enact the action chosen. The impure theory of freedom will be used to make that case. The internal/external question is therefore irrelevant to settling whether this can be an issue of freedom: the relevant question is, instead, alterability.
