Ranging over central issues of morals and politics and the nature of freedom and authority, this study examines the role of value-neutrality, rights, equality, and the prevention of harm in the liberal tradition, and relates them to fundamental moral questions such as the relation of values to social forms, the comparability of values, and the significance of personal commitments. The author's own views centre on the value of personal autonomy in modern societies. He considers the political implications of autonomy, which presupposes value-pluralism and delineates the scope and limits of a perfectionist doctrine of toleration.