A Study In Acton’s Thought Of Liberty

John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, a British liberal thinker and historian in the19th century, is the author for the famous thesis "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Among Britain there were many ideologists and great figures in the19th century, Acton was just as a professor of history at the university of Cambridge. In fact he was an important ideologist at that time. He devoted all his lifetime on the study of free thought. He deeply analyzed the power that promoted the development of the liberal and obstacles to liberal development. His thought profoundly influenced intellectual history in the20th century. As an ideologist, he received more and more attention from later scholars."Freedom" is a core concept in political philosophy. Many liberal philosophers regard it as the important value orientation. Ideologists and scholars in different periods had different thoughts in the understanding and interpretation "freedom". Liberalist ideological trend had gradually become the mainstream in western society. The core of Acton’s free thought is restricting power through discussing advantages and disadvantages in the development of freedom. And the core idea is the guarantee for everything else. So we think Acton’s free thought is unique among the concepts of ideologists and scholars. We expect Acton’s ideology to provide some thinking ways and help for the development of liberal thoughts in China.This paper mainly analyzes the formation of Acton’s free thought by studying his life, growing environment and historical background. His ideology and the core of which are described in this article by putting his idea in analysis from "the barrier of freedom" to "the guarantee of freedom". The last part make a comment on Acton’s free thought.