Privacy & Personality

Like many concepts, privacy has a commonly accepted core of meaning with an indefinite or variable periphery. Some would wish to enlarge the core. It would be pointless to attempt to establish a definition by way of introduction to a series of essays that themselves provide no single definition. But the themes of freedom, justice, rational choice, and community always seem to appear in any discussion of privacy.

J. Roland Pennock was professor of political science at Swarthmore College for more than twenty-five years, as well as a fellow at the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

John W. Chapman is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pittsburgh.