The Morality of Freedom [Hardcover]

Joseph Raz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 1986 | ISBN-10: 0198247729 | ISBN-13: 978-0198247722

Ranging over central issues of morals and politics, this book discusses the nature of freedom and authority. It examines the roles of value-neutrality, rights, equality, and the prevention of harm in the liberal tradition, and relates them to fundamental moral questions such as the relation of values to social forms, the comparability of values, and the significance of personal commitments.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As significant a new statement of liberal principles as anything since Mill's On Liberty."--Times Literary Supplement

"It is not possible here to do justice to the richness of Raz's discussion. ... Anyone who reads The Morality of Freedom with care will profit. It is the deeply original and rigorous product of a gifted philosopher working at the height of his powers." Loren Lomasky But Is It Liberalism?

"Raz's arguments are a valuable guide to the complexities of contemporary social and political life....[An] admirable account of liberalism."--The New Republic

"Stimulating, challenging, and insightful throughout. His basic theses are intriguing and important. His argumentation illuminates and ties together a wide range of issues in moral and political theory."--The Philosophical Review

"Whether you tackle the whole or merely some of its parts, you will be in the company of one of the most acute, inventive, energetic, and unpredictable minds currently at work in analytic moral and political theory....The most ambitious and effective philosophical defense of political liberalism since Rawls, if not Mill."--Canadian Philosophical Review

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Joseph Raz is at University of Oxford. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 24, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198247729
• ISBN-13: 978-0198247722
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,673,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A monument of modern liberal thought, June 14, 2005

By 

Sarah Cohen (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Morality of Freedom (Paperback)

"The Morality of Freedom" is one of the most important half-dozen books of political theory written since Rawls "A Theory of Justice." Raz has an irresistible gift for framing subjects of discussion, for illustrating them with deft but not overelaborate examples, for parsing distinctions with subtlety but not scholasticism (he makes as many distinctions as are useful, but no more). The book is infused with a profound sense of man as a project-driven and social creature, one whose life is enabled by "social forms" that are supported by political structures. Raz's prose is lucid; his theoretical discerning unflaggingly keen. The result is a true monument of modern liberal philosophy.