Sophie de Grouchy, The Tradition(s) of Two Liberties, and the Missing Mother(s) of Liberalism

In this chapter I draw attention to Sophie de Grouchy’s 1798 distinction between negative and positive right, which, upon examination, prefigures the famous distinction between positive and negative liberty. I analyse her treatment, and I argue that she should be accorded a significant place in the discussions of the tradition(s) of reflection on the famous distinction. First, I frame my discussion by revisiting Isaiah Berlin’s famous lecture and a recent editorial by Jason Stanley and Vesla Weaver; I note the presence of a paternal liberal tradition going back to Constant which gets invoked alongside the famous distinction between the two concepts of liberty. Insofar as a tradition can be conceived as a lineage or an offspring, it is striking that the matriarchs are absent from it. Second, I discuss De Grouchy’s neo-Lockean analyses of justice and property rights, which form the context in which she introduces her distinction between positive and negative right. I illuminate her views by way of comparison with the writings of Rousseau and Adam Smith. Third, I offer evidence and analysis of De Grouchy’s version of the distinction and show how it can be mapped onto the more famous dis- tinction. Fourth, I close by arguing that if there is a liberal tradition worth keeping alive, De Grouchy ought to have an honoured place in it.