Freedom Has No Intrinsic Value
Liberalism and Voluntarism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6252034 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeffrey Friedman (0000-0002-3013-3950, University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 38-85 |
| Publication date | 2013-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0891-3811 • E-ISSN: 1933-8007 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08913811.2013.832492 |
| OpenAlex | W2065119599 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 13 |
Deontological (as opposed to consequentialist) liberals treat freedom of action as an end in itself, not a means to other ends. Yet logically, when one makes a deliberate choice, one treats freedom of action as if it were not an end in itself, for one uses this freedom as a means to the ends one hopes to achieve through one’s action. The tension between deontology and the logic of choice is reflected in the paradoxical nature of the ‘‘right to do wrong’’; and in Rawls’s unsuccessful attempts to justify to acting agents their interest in such a right, embodied in his conception of agents as ‘‘self-validating sources of claims.’ ’ A self-validating source of claims is akin to God as envisioned by voluntarist theologians such as Ockham. Leibniz’s critique of voluntarism, then, is applicable to the Rawlsian subject: like the voluntarist God, she would be unable to act if it were indeed the case that her action validated itself. Is freedom*I shall be speaking of freedom of action*an end in itself, or a mere means to other ends? It has been treated as intrinsically valuable by a long line of political theorists culminating, in our own day, in Rawls1*for whom the logic of the original position dictates that everyone be allowed to pursue whatever ends they prefer. The
Action (physics · Consequentialism · Deontological ethics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Liberalism · Physics · Political science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Value (mathematics · Voluntarism (philosophy · Computer Science · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought · War, Ethics, and Justification
| Citations per year | 0.31 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2020 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |