Freedom, Markets, and Equality in Eighteenth Century Philosophy

<p>This dissertation examines how eighteenth century thinkers Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant defended the value of free markets. It reconstructs their defense of liberal economic reforms, including free trade (domestic and foreign) and the deregulation of markets in labor and land. Through this reconstruction, I demonstrate how the normative foundations of early free market thought were contested throughout the period. Pro-market thinkers (e.g. Turgot, Smith, and Kant) viewed economic liberalization as a mechanism that increased the economic freedoms of individuals, whereas critics of the market, including Richard Price and other “agrarian republican” thinkers, concluded that liberal reform diminished opportunities for material self-sufficiency and independence. Contemporary scholars, who often emphasize the egalitarian commitments of eighteenth century pro-market thinkers, have largely downplayed the significance of this latter group of thinkers and their egalitarian proposals for agrarian reform (which Turgot, Smith and Kant did not support). In contrast, this dissertation contends that although the agrarian republican outlook constituted a path not taken in the history of economic thought, the conceptualization of economic freedom as a form of nondomination and material self-sufficiency remains an important idea for contemporary discussions of economic justice.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Whalen, Nicole

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Omar Dahbour

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Linda Martín Alcoff
• Michael Menser
• Catherine Wilson

• Ethics and Political Philosophy
• History of Philosophy
• Philosophy
• Markets
• Republicanism
• Economic Democracy
• Eighteenth Century Philosophy

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3974

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-5029