Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:26:39.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Commerce and Selfishness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Richard J. Arneson
Richard J. Arneson*
Affiliation:
University of California at San Diego
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Does the existence of a capitalist market economy foster the character trait of selfishness? Does a market elicit narrowly self-interested conduct? Many great minds have advanced notably weak arguments to support affirmative answers to these questions. In section I, I canvass several unsuccessful attempts by Karl Marx to demonstrate that market economies are causally implicated in the production of undesirable character traits. Sections II and Ill venture a suggestion that partially vindicates Marx's hunch. The suggestion I develop relies on the truth of an empirical hypothesis regarding the effect on the disposition to altruism of activity by public authority that is perceived by those affected to be fair.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume , Volume 8: New Essays in Ethics and Public Policy , 1982 , pp. 211 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Select Bibliography

Arneson, Richard J., ‘The Principle of Fairness and Free–Rider Problems,’ Ethics, 92 (1982) 616–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arneson, Richard J., ‘Prospects for Community in a Market Economy,’ Political Theory, 9 (1981) 207–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, G.A., ‘Capitalism, Freedom, and the Proletariat,’ in The Idea of Freedom, edited by Ryan, Alan (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1979).Google Scholar
Hampshire, Stuart (editor), Public and Private Morality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnell, Terrance C., ‘Moral Blackmail,’ Ethics, 91 (1981) 544–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Stanley, Marx on the Choice Between Socialism and Communism (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 1980).Google Scholar
Parfit, Derek, ‘Later Selves and Moral Principles,’ in Philosophy and Personal Relations, edited by Montefiore, Alan (London 1973)Google Scholar
Schick, Frederic, ‘Toward a logic of Liberalism,’ Journal of Philosophy, 77 (1980) 80–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya, ‘Liberty, Unanimity and Rights,’ Economica, 43 (1976) 217–45, and the literature on ‘Sen's Paradox’ therein cited.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya, ‘Rights and Agency,’ Philosophy and Public Affairs, 11 (1981-82) 3–39.Google Scholar
Stretton, Hugh, Capitalism, Socialism, and the Environment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1976).Google Scholar