Abstract

This is an attempt to conceptualize freedom beyond the now traditional opposition beetween a negative and a positive notion. To this purpose several weaknesses of the idea of negative freedom are pointed out and taken into account, while positive freedom is reinterpreted in terms of a social capacity, without reference however to romantic self-affirmation. Freeedom is thus seen connected with the question of power and authority, whose main theories are then shortly assessed. Among these the so-called „service conception“ is the object of a more detailed discussion. The outcome will be a proposal to make it possible to understand freedom as a special enabling position with regard to authority.