Socialism versus Capitalism, Ideally Speaking
In the present contribution I use the debate between Jerry Cohen and Jason Brennan on the question of which socioeconomic theory is, ideally speaking, morally superior – socialism or capitalism – to explore the question of how we should evaluate the moral attractiveness of ideal social and political...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Peeters
2021
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| In: |
Ethical perspectives
Year: 2021, Volume: 28, Issue: 4, Pages: 445-471 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Cohen, Gerald A. 1941-2009
/ Brennan, Jason 1979-
/ Socialism
/ Capitalism
/ Theory
|
| IxTheo Classification: | NCE Business ethics TK Recent history VA Philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the present contribution I use the debate between Jerry Cohen and Jason Brennan on the question of which socioeconomic theory is, ideally speaking, morally superior – socialism or capitalism – to explore the question of how we should evaluate the moral attractiveness of ideal social and political theories. More specifically, I explore the question of how exactly the ideally speaking clause should be understood in such an enterprise. Social and political theories hardly ever aim to fully determine, via the set of principles in which they consist, how people should behave. Rather, they aim to leave people free to determine how to behave in certain areas of their lives. Brennan assumes that when evaluating the attractiveness of ideal social and political theories we should fill in these indeterminate areas with ideal assumptions as to how people would behave within them. Pace Brennan, I argue that we should not fill in these indeterminate areas with such ideal assumptions; what we should do, instead, is assume that people would behave within these indeterminate areas as real people would behave within them as they follow the set of principles in which the relevant theories consist. While doing so, I also discuss the implications that my argument has for the debate between Cohen and Brennan over the moral attractiveness of ideal socialism and capitalism. I end with a discussion of Brennan’s comparison of ideal capitalism and socialism under his misguided assumption. I demonstrate why his claim that ideal capitalism is morally superior to ideal socialism is unfounded, even under his misguided assumption. |
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| ISSN: | 1783-1431 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Ethical perspectives
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2143/EP.28.4.3290396 |