Abstract

This paper explores and criticises what the author calls the modern "doublethink" of liberty, which is distinctive of some philosophers' legal and political approach between XVII and XVIII century, when the great ideal of «liberty» coexisted with the practice of «colonial slavery». This approach was that of describing slavery as though it was freedom and this was possible thanks to the theoretical device of the «contract». The author traces the misrepresentation of slavery as freedom back to the individualistic paradigm and to a certain version of liberal thought and proposes their critical reconsideration.