Abstract

The liberal tradition has believed that the interpretation of liberty exposed by Constantand Berlin was almost identical. This agreement , shared by the whole present bibliography-the republican trend of Skinner and Pettit included -, doesn't pay attention to one ground distinction between these two thinkers . Whereas Berlin holds that the positive freedom is just a secondary instrument, Constant defends that the liberty of the moderns isn't real without the support given by the 'liberté des anciens'. This papers aims to show the different interpretations of liberty within liberal tradition