“Liberty means that a man is recognized as free and treated as free by those who surround him.”

A perspective from pragmatic applications; not from a natural law perspective..

It is a shallow statement. In todays current affairs, it will not do, to stop at practical. There is no gravity in the quote, as Mike points out. What type of Liberty and its origins must be included. Natural law is inherit throughout all the universe ! It is not theory but fact based.

From a natural law perspective, man is free even when in chains. The chains are there because the people around him are not treating him as free. The quote is accurate.

I'm with E Archer on this one.