The Importance of Liberty is not in Its Value

Ian Carter defended: “Independence: Freedom has value independently of the value of the actions one is free to do, or of any other consequence. This value gives us reasons to care for freedom.” The main purpose of this paper is a defense of the thesis that freedom's relevance can be fully explained in terms of the value of the actions one is free to do. Accordingly, Independence is false. I shall propose an alternative view, by arguing that in relevant cases freedom merely acts as an enabler of the value of the actions one is free to perform. Freedom is a condition needed to perform valuable actions, but it does not contribute any value to the overall value of states of affairs. Lacking freedom, certain actions that would be valuable when freely performed lose their value.