On Freedom: Key Terms

Sovereignty

Snyder’s first form of freedom. Sovereignty is the acknowledgment and respect of ourselves and others. This is described as what children learn while growing up.

Unpredictability

Snyder’s second form of freedom. Unpredictability is the capacity and opportunity to make independent choices, especially those that do not conform to expectations. This is described as characteristic of teenagers.

Mobility

Snyder’s third form of freedom. Mobility (whether social, physical, financial, etc.) is the capacity and opportunity to change one’s station in life or move to a new place. One example is how young people are able to move out of their parents’ house and go off to college or seek meaningful employment.

Factuality

Snyder’s fourth form of freedom. Factuality is the value of facts and truthfulness. A free society cannot develop if people debate what is a fact and what is not, or try to hold on to contradictory facts. Facts must be kept separate from opinions (and what people feel to be true).

Solidarity

Snyder’s fifth and final form of freedom. Solidarity is the drive to ensure the freedom of others. If a person benefits from freedom at the cost of others, then that person is not truly free.

Leib

A German word that literally means “body,” but which Snyder (borrowing from philosopher Edith Stein) uses to focus on the individual traits of a person. The physical body is referred to as Körper in German. The Leib is the foundation of his initial definition of freedom.

Normalization

A term used by Václav Havel to describe what happens to people under oppressive regimes. Many people become cynical, believing that everything is terrible, but pretend to support the regime to avoid being punished. It breaks the will of such people and gives power to the regime.

Politics of Inevitability

A term that Snyder uses to describe a mindset prevalent in the United States. It occurs when people believe that there is an inevitable result to their form of government—for example, that the inevitable result of capitalism is freedom. This discounts all of the other potential outcomes (such as oligarchies in the case of capitalism) and leads people to believe that whatever economic and social conditions exist in their country are unavoidable.

Positive Freedom

A way of looking at freedom that gives more agency to each person. Snyder describes this as “freedom to”—that is, freedom to pursue one’s goals, to change social classes, to move around the country, to question one’s government. It supports the idea of a positive future of creativity.

Negative Freedom

A way of looking at freedom that limits the agency of each person. Snyder describes this as “freedom from”—that is, freedom from tyranny, an invading army, oppressive laws, etc. It focuses on a barrier that keeps people from being free. The issue is that once the barrier is removed, people will often expect life to be radically different or find a new barrier. Sometimes the new barrier is other people.

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