March 29, 2011
Cohen’s Why Not Socialism?
In Why Not Socialism?, G. A. Cohen argues that socialism is intrinsically desirable, and capitalism is intrinsically repugnant. I'm willing to bet most of you here will not be convinced…
All posts in: Academic Philosophy
March 29, 2011
Just Because It’s Just Doesn’t Mean It’s Just to Enforce It.
SOME CONCEPTUAL DISTINCTIONS You’ve read some of us (in particular, Matt and me) sometimes claiming that certain things are required by justice. A few of our readers have then complained…
March 28, 2011
Autonomy (Responses to my 3/15 post, Part III)
This is the third post that attempts to respond to comments on my 3/15 post Some Values Matter More Than Others And Are Ignored Anyway. One person (Dan K.)…
March 27, 2011
Social Parasitism
Here’s another issue that may divide libertarians from progressives. It is prima facie wrong to live off the productive efforts of others. That is, other things being equal, being productive…
March 25, 2011
In Defense of Idealism
A Dialogue: Philosopher: “A perfectly just society would look like X.” Economist: “That’s unrealistic. In real life, people would respond badly to the incentives produced in X.” Philosopher: “Sure, but…
March 25, 2011
Comparative Institutional Evaluation, or How Not to Do Political Philosophy
Consider the following only slightly exaggerated version of an argument that occurs in a lot of political philosophy 1. Institution X is unjust or bad.2. Therefore, X should be abolished or…