To discuss liberal education intelligently we must begin by asking what it is. Otherwise we cannot say whether it is improv ing or declining, or even whether it is good. Socrates' lesson that we can clarify nothing about a matter until we consider what it is is at once commonsensical and troubling. It is just the kind of lesson that the liberal arts should be teaching. The way to proceed is to explore what liberalism means, what education means and what they mean when we take them together. The first step is to look at the current substance and structure of education and liberalism and see what place today's liberal education has in freedom and education generally. I will in general follow this procedure and besin with this step.