Meyer is a strong proponent of “negative liberty,” and believes Berlin was as well:
"[P]ositive liberty" [is] the notion that liberty is empty unless it includes a positive capability to do something specific – e.g., work without exploitation, or, get an education, just to name two random examples.
Negative liberty is simpler; it is being free "from" things; it is being left alone, having a zone of individual liberty. . .
[Positive liberty means] believers in the great "ism's" of history. . .[that] there is One Way. Many deeply religious people believe there is One Way.
True advocates of the arguments and attitudes that give negative liberty an exalted position in the competition of political values believe there are Many Ways. They believe that the most human and most vital activity is picking Your Way, which entails lots of freedom to be left alone.
If you believe in Many Ways, you cannot believe in grandiose theories. You cannot believe there is a single system that explains it all.
That's because [people] constantly develop and cherish ultimate values and virtues that are simply not consistent with each other, and that is what liberty protects.
Often our values are not comparable or compatible. Liberty, in the classic example, collides with equality: if taxes are increased to help make poor people more equal, someone's liberty is being compromised. . .
Pluralism, tolerance and skepticism are the intellectual and attitudinal virtues that nourish an appreciation of Berlin's negative liberty deep enough to vanquish the need for . . . a Big Theory.
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