Capitalism, Freedom, and the Proletariat

Bibliographic Data

ID23136187
AuthorsG A Cohen (corresponding author)
EditorsMichael Otsuka (0000-0002-5639-1712)
Year2011
Publication date2011-01-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueOn the currency of egalitarian justice, and other essays in political philosophy (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPrinceton University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.23943/princeton/9780691148700.003.0008
OpenAlexW4232086184
ISBN9780691148700
LanguageEN
Citations received19

This chapter argues that libertarians misuse the concept of freedom. That is not, as it stands, a comment on the attractiveness of the institutions they severally favor, but on the rhetoric they use to describe those institutions. If, however, they misdescribe those institutions, then a correct description of them might make them appear less attractive, and then the critique of the defensive rhetoric would indirectly be a critique of the institutions the rhetoric defends. The principal contention is that, while liberals and libertarians see the freedom which is intrinsic to capitalism, they overlook the unfreedom which necessarily accompanies capitalist freedom. To expose this failure of perception, the chapter begins by criticizing a description of the libertarian position provided by the libertarian philosopher Antony Flew in his Dictionary of Philosophy .

Capitalism · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Proletariat · Rhetoric · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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