friedrich hayek the constitution of liberty

But for now, let’s just keep in mind that individual liberty is the key value of a free society. Later, we’ll explore why this is important. And it only uses that power to shield us from people who are encroaching on our freedom – for instance, by punishing lawbreakers. In a free society, only the government has the explicit power of coercion. But we should strive for it and work to achieve the highest degree of liberty possible. This means that liberty is, ultimately, just an ideal. Just think about how we have to submit to others’ demands or expectations if we depend on their services. Our social, economic, and political relations to other people are too complex for that.

There will probably never be a world without coercion. Coercion robs us of alternatives and devalues us as thinking individuals. For example, our physical, intellectual, or economic abilities may prevent us from pursuing certain careers.īut that’s different from coercion – outside pressure that happens when other people control our minds, bodies, or even environments in order to make us act in a certain way. But this doesn’t mean that we can follow any path we like. Individual liberty, then, is more of a “freedom from” than a “freedom to.” In other words, nobody can tell us which of life’s many paths to choose. In this context, free people are those who make their own decisions without any external coercion. What does the idea of “freedom” even mean? Well, for the author, it mainly refers to individual liberty.

Here’s the key message: Individual liberty is the cornerstone of a free society. He believes that Western politics are moving away from this fundamental value – and that we must do better. But are we doing enough to protect it? The author’s answer is a resounding no. The value of freedom still guides our thinking today. It’s a philosophy that was outlined by the ancient Greeks and refined centuries later by Enlightenment philosophers like Rousseau, Locke, and Hume. Freedom has always been a guiding principle of Western civilization.

Friedrich hayek the constitution of liberty