Introduction

Abstract

I begin this introductory chapter by noting how just before the Global Financial Crisis broke out in 2008, the literature on political freedom was in very good shape, with several monographs reinvigorating the debate about the correct analysis of the concept of freedom. But the crisis intervened, and academics and practitioners returned to earlier criticisms of capitalism and liberalism to understand the crisis. Yet as business law and ethics are often grounded in views about freedom going back to thinkers in liberal and republican traditions, the literature on political freedom is still highly relevant to us today. In this chapter, I show how I plan to put forward a theory of the epistemic, informational, or cognitive aspects of freedom that, while indebted to this literature, is developed in the broader context of business ethics, political theory, normative economics, and legal scholarship. Using this background, I briefly introduce the two ideals of known freedom and acknowledged freedom. An overview of the remaining chapters completes the introduction.