Capitalism, Freedom and Rhetoric: a reply to Tibor R. Machan |
| |
Authors: | ALAN HAWORTH |
| |
Affiliation: | Alan Haworth, Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, The Polytechnic of North London, Prince of Wales Road, London NW5 3LB, United Kingdom. |
| |
Abstract: | ABSTRACT Tibor R. Machan's 'The virtue of freedom in capitalism', which recently appeared in this journal, seeks to defend the currently fashionable view that capitalism and freedom are closely linked. I concentrate upon three aspects of his argument. First, Machan holds that capitalism is the only system capable of facilitating the exercise of moral responsibility effectively. Against this, I show that his argument rests upon a systematic confusion between two distinct theses. Secondly, I deal with his attempt to rest an argument upon the allegedly 'uncoercive' nature of market exchanges. Thirdly, I show that his analysis of the concept of freedom, which closely follows Hayek, logically cannot be deployed in support of the free market. Machan has a tendency to appeal to 'tradition', and so, in conclusion, I briefly consider his relation to the 'analytic' movement in philosophy. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|