I’ll be discussing reason, the authority over freedom, in a later post.

Some people have expressed concern that morality is a restriction on freedom, as if we are slaves. Yet normativity is the exchange of freedom for reasons. Any time there is an “I should” there is a reason that justifies restricting one’s freedom to do otherwise (see Kants hypothetical imperative).

Only when we get to morality do these reasons that restrict freedom take the form of universalizable moral principles (categorical imperative).