Frank H. Knight and ethical pluralism

Bibliographic Data

ID6251998
AuthorsRichard Boyd (University of Chicago, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume11
Issue4
Pages519-536
Publication date1997-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-3811 • E-ISSN: 1933-8007
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08913819708443474
OpenAlexW1589514036
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

For Frank Knight, the fact that we are free to engage in economic pursuits brings out what is both best and worst in human nature. The same competitive economy that liberates individuals to choose their own desired ends also provides them with socially undesirable wants and fosters habits potentially at odds with the demands of liberal democracy. Given Knight's desire both to defend human liberty and his concession that liberty is likely to be abused, his version of liberalism must of necessity be anticonsequentialist. Paradoxically, Knight's philosophical pluralism—his insistence that there are any number of incommensurable perspectives on the good or just society—underlies both his criticism of the “ethical” possibilities of the competitive order and his defense of human liberty against the dangers of social planning

Criticism · Democracy · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Knight · Law and economics · Liberalism · Order (exchange · Pluralism (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Social criticism · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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