LIBERTY IN LIBERAL THOUGHT – PAST AND PRESENT

Abstract

The article presents history of liberty in the past and contemporary liberal thought. This article grounds that creators of liberalism passed by a long way to define precisely the phenomenon of liberty. When creators were closer to the present day, they tried to separate liberty from metaphysics and morality with reference to the ideals of democracy. However, they confused the cult of equality with the liberty to show that the truth always must be at liberty’s service. But the liberty should be understood like a competence to realize person’s rights. Not till then, liberalism will conceal the historic and present–time demons.