Freedom, coercion, and ability

Abstract

In his methodological comments about the study of ethics and politics, Aristotle famously remarked that one should not demand more precision from the study of a subject than that subject allows.1 He has sometimes been interpreted as suggesting that analytical rigour is not required here. Indeed it may well be true that at the end of analytical scrutiny, central topics in moral and political philosophy, such as freedom or power, may still leave room for interpretation because the superiority of one analysis over another may well be embedded in our intuitions. This fact, if it proves to be so, should not dissuade us from analytical rigour. In the last few decades philosophers, economists and mathematicians have fruitfully applied mathematical and formal analysis to the concepts of 'power' and 'freedom'. From that analysis we have learned much. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.