Real freedom

Real freedom is a term coined by the (political) philosopher and economist Philippe Van Parijs. It expands upon notions of negative freedom by incorporating not simply institutional or other constraints on a person's choices, but also the requirements of physical reality, resources and personal capacity. To have real freedom, according to Van Parijs, an individual must: Under this conception, a moral agent could be negatively free to take a holiday in Miami, because no-one is forcing them not to; but not really free to do so, because they cannot afford the flight. Similarly, someone could be negatively free to swim across the English Channel; but not really free, because they are not a good enough swimmer and would not be able to succeed in the task. Real freedom is, then, a matter of degree — one is more or less really free, not just either really free or not; and no-one has complete real freedom yet — no-one is currently really free to teleport to Mars, for instance.