Commentary: I have no objection to these freedoms. But I do have an objection to calling them “primordial.” A better approach is provided by Joel Feinberg in the book Social Philosophy, 1973. In the first chapter, “The Concept of Freedom,” he analyzes the concept of freedom as the absence of constraints, and then he distinguished internal from external constraints, on the one hand, and positive from negative constraints, on the other. Thus giving us a fourfold classification with examples:
| Positive Constraint | Negative Constraint | |
| Internal Constraint | headache, obsessive thought, compulsive desires | ignorance, weakness, defieciencies in talent or skill |
| External Constraint | barred windows, locked doors, pointed bayonets | lack of money, lack of transportation, lack of weapons |
If there is to be a primordial principle, it surely should be the freedom to strive to survive. This means the freedom to be a hunter, gatherer, farmer, and pastoralist. And all these freedoms can be summed up as the freedom to use subsistence land.
An internal negative constraint is beautifully illustrated in the film “Walkabout,” in which a young boy and girl are stranded in the Australian outback, and without the fortunate encounter with an Aboriginal youth, they would have died. He has the knowledge and the skills to get food and water which are necessary for survival. Below is a trailer: