John Anderson has two passions – philosophy and freedom, and The Servile State is philosophy analysing social and moral tendencies destructive of freedom. Anderson rejects any belief in a utopian harmony, arguing that every society is the location of a struggle between freedom and repressive tendencies, repression usually demanding conformity by promising harmony, peace and (in economically turbulent times) material securtity. Anderson deplored moralising because he thought that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ referred to real features of human life.

Introduction by Kenneth Minogue.