第40页 导言

本书的一处错译和漏译，非常容易导致对伯林两种自由思想的误解，刘擎老师在《西方政治哲学史》20世纪卷对伯林部分讨论时专门指出了中译本的错译和漏译
我只能重复，积极自由的观念因滥用——神话权威——而走向其反面的现象是常有发生的，而是是我们这个时代最熟悉的、最具压制性的现象。不管出于什么理由或原因，“消极”自由的观念（被理解为对“我被统治到何种程度”这个问题的回答），不管它的失控形式的后果多么具有灾难性，历史地看，从未受到其理论家扭曲，而相比之下，与它对应的积极自由，却常常远离其原意，变成晦暗的形而上学或社会性的邪恶之物；虽然积极自由可能会走向其反面，并会丧失与其清白起源的关联，但消极自由不管怎么说却更常见地保持原样。因此，在我看来，更有必要揭露积极自由的偏离，而不是消极自由的偏离
错译部分包括 “消极自由的观念……从未受到其理论家扭曲” ，还有“积极自由可能走向反面……丧失与其清白起源的关联”，漏译在“消极自由不管怎么说却更常见地保持原样”此句末的一句话 there has been no lack of emphasis, in the last hundred years, upon its more disastrous implications。
尤其值得说明的是中文的易错错译容易让我们忽略伯林对 积极自由的“失态”/“扭曲”的理解，在伯林看来相对于消极自由，积极自由被理论家利用扭曲之后，还可以利用其积极自由的清白概念/本初概念 为自身的不正当行为做辩护，赢得帮助。所以伯林表述 The first can be turned into its opposite and still exploit the favourable associations of its innocent origins. 着重用说明 exploit the favourable associations of its innocent origins  注意  favourable 的使用 ，这是积极自由和消极自由 被扭曲后的不同性质的认识 ，原文伯林不是强调被扭曲变态的自由就丧失与其本初的关联，而是说被扭曲变态的自由观念指导下的行动，失态的积极自由观指导的行为比 失态的消极自由观指导的行为 更容易被掩盖（甚至继续获得他人的支持和喜欢）
伯林英文原文
 I can only repeat that the perversion of the notion of positive liberty into its opposite - the apotheosis of authority - did occur and has for a long while been one of the most familiar and depressing phenomena of our time. For whatever reason or cause, the notion of ‘negative', liberty (conceived as the answer to the question 'How much am I to be governed?'), however disastrous the consequences of its unbridled forms, has not historically been twisted by its theorists as often or as effectively into anyihing so darkly metaphysical or socially sinister or remote from its original meaning as its 'positive' counterpart. The first can be turned into its opposite and still exploit the favourable associations of its
innocent origins. The second has, much more frequently, been seen, for better and for worse, for what it was; there has been no lack of emphasis, in the last hundred years, upon its more disastrous implications. Hence the greater need, it seems to me, to expose the aberrations of positive liberty than those of its negative brother 
给出刘擎老师的更准确翻译
积极自由的观念确实发生了变态而走向其反面——对权威的尊崇神化，这长久以来已经成为我们这个时代最为熟悉、最具压制性的现象之一。而无论出于何种理由或原因，“消极”自由的概念（……），无论其各种放纵形态的后果多么有灾难性，在历史上却未曾像其对应的“积极”观念那样，如此经常或有效地被它的理论家们扭曲，变成如此晦暗的形而上学之物，或如此社会性的险恶之物，抑或如此远离其原初意义的东西。后者（积极自由）可以被转变成它的对立面，却仍然能利用与其纯真起源有关的有利联系。前者（消极自由）则更为经常地被视为（无论是好是坏）如其所是的东西，而对它蕴含的灾难性的影响的强调，在过去数百年间从未缺失。因此，揭露积极自由的种种失常，在我看来要被揭露其消极兄弟的失常更为必要。