Abstract

While definitions and views of freedom abound, its origins remain misunderstood. As a result, a forgotten, necessary, and surprisingly harsh politics goes unrecognized. In this study, the practices which develop and maintain liberty on a day to day basis are recovered and replicated. The key to their recovery is to emphasize liberty as one mode, specifically, as more freedom than before. The focus is only upon that style of freedom which advances from less to more because it is threatened. The celebrated transition from Locke's state of nature to civil society and guaranteed liberties is an example. The move from liberty as some self-evident truth to fully fledged Jeffersonian liberty is another case. Two effects are necessary for such developments. At least a fraction of freedom is needed in order to advance to its better developed version. The other required effect is a threat to spur such advancement. These effects are specific and seem particular to Anglo-American traditions of thought and politics. As effects necessary for such freedom, they have to be produced. More Freedom replicates the procedures that enable these effects and points to the institutions and practices of socialization that are involved. By contrast, most studies base freedom's origins not in replicable practices but in its usefulness. On such accounts, because freedom was considered valued or useful, those who found it so secured or guaranteed it better. The popular interpretation of Locke is an example for his individuals chose to advance their freedom as guaranteed civil and political liberties. But such interpretations do not account for either the initial emergence of the free nor the threat which spurred the development of their freedom. To consider more freedom instead of just freedom is to highlight how this particular mode develops from less to more of itself. As a result, the production of the freedom that becomes more and the threats which spur it become crucial issues. This study provides a demonstration of the practices needed for this freedom's crucial ingredients and suggestions for how its harsher practices might be transfigured