 Cavendish holds that what it is for a being to be free is for it to have the wherewithal to do as it pleases without obstacle or interference. She holds that many beings are in fact unfree, because they have goals and aims that the surrounding world of objects works to thwart and prohibit. Cavendish’s own goals of being a philosopher and scientist and political leader are a case in point. In many of her texts she proposes that an appropriate response to the obstacles and constraints of the real-world plenum is to develop and employ our faculty of imagination to model alternative worlds that are more amenable to our values, interests, and needs. She suggests a number of reasons why the construction of imaginary worlds might be of benefit: (1) they allow us to experience a version of the life that we are blocked from pursuing in the actual world; (2) they are enjoyable to inhabit; (3) they allow us to hold onto the self with which we identify when the actual world does not leave room for us to express it; (4) they allow us to register for the record and for posterity why that self was not a viable option.