
A Measure of Freedom
Ian Carter(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 25. March 1999
Book
Hardback
322 pages
978-0-19-829453-5 (ISBN)
Description
It is often said that one person or society is `freer' than another, or that people have a right to equal freedom, or that freedom should be increased or even maximized. Such quantitative claims about freedom are of great importance to us, forming an essential part of our political discourse and theorizing. Yet their meaning has been surprisingly neglected by political philosophers until now.
Ian Carter provides the first systematic account of the nature and importance of our judgements about degrees of freedom. He begins with an analysis of the normative assumptions behind the claim that individuals are entitled to a measure of freedom, and then goes on to ask whether it is indeed conceptually possible to measure freedom. Adopting a coherentist approach, the author argues for a conception of freedom that not only reflects commonly held intuitions about who is freer than who but is also compatible with a liberal or freedom-based theory of justice.
Ian Carter provides the first systematic account of the nature and importance of our judgements about degrees of freedom. He begins with an analysis of the normative assumptions behind the claim that individuals are entitled to a measure of freedom, and then goes on to ask whether it is indeed conceptually possible to measure freedom. Adopting a coherentist approach, the author argues for a conception of freedom that not only reflects commonly held intuitions about who is freer than who but is also compatible with a liberal or freedom-based theory of justice.
Reviews / Votes
"Ian Carter's book on freedom is a first-rate work of political and legal philosophy. It is extraordinarily well structured, technically sophisticated, consistently illuminating, and rigorously argumentative. For those theorists (including the present reviewer) who disagree with a number of its positions, it is a volume that will amply repay critical reflection. Indeed, of the myriad books published in the twentieth century on the philosophy of freedom, Carter's is probably the best." Matthew H.Kramer, Cambridge Law Journal 2000More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
652 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-829453-5 (9780198294535)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Ian Carter
A Measure of Freedom
Book
01/2004
Oxford University Press
€100.80
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Person
Research Fellow at the Department of Politics at the Universita di Pavia, Italy
Author
Research Fellow at the Dipartimento di Studi Politici e SocialiResearch Fellow at the Dipartimento di Studi Politici e Sociali, Universita di Pavia, Italy
Content
Introduction ; PART I: JUSTICE AND OVERALL FREEDOM ; 1. The Concept of Overall Freedom ; 2. The Value of Freedom ; 3. The Distribution of Freedom ; 4. Reflective Equilibrium ; PART II: VALUE-BASED FREEDOM ; 5. The Value-Based Approach ; 6. Self-Mastery ; PART III: EMPIRICAL FREEDOM ; 7. Individual Freedom: Actions ; 8. Individual Freedom: Constraints ; 9. Group Freedom ; 10. Indicators of Freedom ; Conclusion ; Bibliography