JUST FREEDOM

A description of a vision for the central role of one of our most cherished—and controversial—ideas: freedom. By esteemed philospher and scholar Philip Pettit. Freedom, in Philip Pettit’s provocative analysis, “requires more than just being let alone.”

In JUST FREEDOM, a succinct articulation of the republican philosophy for which he is renowned, Pettit builds a theory of universal freedom as non-domination. Seen through this lens, even societies that consider themselves free may find their political arrangements lacking. Do those arrangements protect people’s liberties equally? Are they subject to the equally shared control of those they protect? Do they allow the different peoples of the world to live in equal freedom? With elegant, user-friendly tests of freedom—the eyeball test, the tough luck test, and the straight talk test—Pettit addresses these questions, laying out essential yardsticks for policymakers and concerned citizens alike. An invitation to join in a program that would better articulate and realize justice in our social, democratic, and international lives, Just Freedom offers readers an essential starting place for the world’s thorniest problems. Philip Pettit is the L. S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University. His many books include Republicanism and On the People’s Terms.