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    "title": "Visions of the Future from Leading Thinkers [Binder] [2]",
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        "Records of the Domestic Policy Council (Clinton Administration)",
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    "ocrText": "FREEDOM AND OUR FUTURE\nAmartya Sen\nThe future of the world, I would argue, is intimately connected with the future of freedom\nin the world. This is so for two distinct reasons: freedom is both a central end and a determining\nmeans of progress. What is crucial for the world's future is the strengthening of the diverse\ninstitutions that enhance our economic, political, social and cultural freedom. We need an\nintegrated view of freedom as the clue to our future - a perspective that tends to be lost in the\nfragmented debates about markets, globalization, democracies, social opportunities, spread of\ninformation, international understanding and other important subjects. Each of these is important,\nbut they have to be placed together in a broader context. Like the three blind men trying to define\nan elephant, in the ancient Indian story, by describing what each could touch and feel, they all got\nsomething right, and yet there is a fuller account that has to be sought.¹\nFreedom as an End\nFreedom is one of the principal objectives that we value - and have reason to value. We\nvalue the freedom to have the things that we would like to have and to determine for ourselves what\nthings are good for us. As adult human beings, we do not want others - some appointed\n\"guardians\" - to do the choosing for us, or to dictate to us what things we should regard as good.\nFreedom is, thus, crucially important as an end, and this role is not compromised by the fact that\nwe may respectively subscribe to very different lists of \"good things.\" We may not treasure exactly\nthe same things, but we can still agree on the importance of the freedom of each to pursue his or\nher own objectives. Universal acceptance of the value of freedom does not demand uniformity of\nexact tastes.\n1 I have tried to investigate the pervasive contribution of freedom to economic, social and\npolitical progress in my recent book, Development as Freedom (New York: Knopf, and Oxford:\nOxford University Press, 1999)."
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