ABSTRACT
In the sense 'freedom' refers solely to a relation of men to other men, and the only infringement on it is coercion by men. Freedom presupposes that the individual has some assured private sphere, that there is some set of circumstances in his environment with which others cannot interfere. The transition from the concept of individual liberty to that of liberty as power has been facilitated by the philosophical tradition that uses the word 'restraint' where reader have used 'coercion' in defining liberty. Coercion occurs when one man's actions are made to serve another man's will, not for his own but for the other's purpose. The freedom of the free may have differed widely, but only in the degree of an independence which the slave did not possess at all. The conception of liberty can be made more precise only after people have examined the related concept of coercion.
