ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates how the inadequacies of the negative conception of freedom carry us towards the 'hybrid view' and its defects opens the way towards the positive conception of freedom. The negative view focuses entirely on finding out the universal constraints on freedom of action; it reduces constraints to personal interventions and state coercion. The book analyses how the negative view considers the relation between free action, free person and free society. It includes a brief consideration of the meaning and limits of consumer freedom, as well as an argument showing that freedom of contract does not automatically yield individual freedom when it involves a relationship between individuals with unequal power. The book exposes some of the pitfalls for any purely descriptive account of freedom.
