The Free Development of Each collects twelve essays on the history of German philosophy by Allen W. Wood, one of the leading scholars in the field. They explore moral philosophy, politics, society, and history in the works of Kant, Herder, Fichte, Hegel, and Marx, and share the basic theme of freedom, as it appears in morality and in politics. All of the essays have been re-edited and revised for this collection, and five are previously unpublished. They are accompanied by an Introduction which sets out the central, philosophical viewpoint of the volume, and a comprehensive bibliography.

Allen W. Wood is Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor emeritus at Stanford University. He studied for his PhD at Yale University, and has held regular professorships at Cornell University and Yale University, and visiting appointments at the University of Michigan, University of California at San Diego, and Oxford University, where he was Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in 2005. He has served as editor of Philosophical Review, between 1974 and 1995, and is on the editorial boards of Kant-Studien, Journal of the History of Philosophy, The Owl of Minerva, Kantian Review, Ethics, Journal of Moral Philosophy.