A Contextualist Account of Regulative Freedom

In this chapter, attention again turns to issues surrounding freedom. In chapter two it was argued that the dual power to do otherwise, to be able to A and to refrain from A-ing, was a necessary condition of a concept of freedom, which was named ‘regulative freedom’. In this chapter, a contextualist analysis of regulative freedom is proposed. The chapter begins by considering different possible formulations of a contextualist account of freedom, after which, semantic evidence both for and against the view is examined. Next, two significant advantages of the contextualist theory are outlined, namely, a response to the (reformulated) consequence argument and the argument from manipulation. Finally, objections to a contextualist account of regulative freedom are answered.