ABSTRACT
Freedom is regarded by many as the pre-eminent political value, but what does it mean to be free? Do we have to justify freedom, or do it we take it as axiomatic that we should be free, and that it is restrictions on freedom which require justification? And what are those justifications? If we go into the street and survey people’s attitudes to freedom, we might find that they favour the freedom to do things of which they approve, but would like the state to use its power to restrict freedom to do things of which they disapprove. Is there then a principled way to establish what we should be free to do? At the core of freedom is the idea of ‘choice’, but can we choose to do anything we want?
