Showing papers in "New York Review of Books in 1990"

Individual Freedom as a Social Commitment

Abstract: (a) as a central value in social appraisal, and (b) as an undetach able product of social arrangements. For normative analysis of con temporary society, this perspective has, I believe, some significant merits over other approaches (e.g. utilitarian calculus). And it can also have far-reaching implications on the assessment of social institutions and public policy. While I shall try to discuss the basic ideas underlying individual freedom seen as a social commitment, my primary concern in this article is with the practical relevance of this view. I shall attempt to illustrate the implications of this view with actual real-life problems. Many of the examples chosen will involve economic phenomena. This will be so not just because I happen to be primarily an economist by profession (though often taking the liberty of jumping into ethical debates), but also because I believe that economic analysis has some thing to contribute to substantive ethics in the world in which we live. Some of the most distressing problems of social ethics are deeply economic in nature. In this context, perhaps I would be forgiven for