‘Libertarianism, Capitalism, Ideology: A Reality Check’
Dr. Enzo Rossi (University of Amsterdam)
Thursday 10 November 2016
4pm- Lecture Room 1
Lecture Synopsis:
Empirical evidence is used from history and anthropology to argue that libertarians are not entitled to use current folk notions of private property rights in defence of a capitalist socio-political system. The genealogy of the notion of private property shows that asking whether a capitalist state can emerge without violations of self-ownership cannot help settling the question of state legitimacy, because the notion of private property presupposed by that question is a product of the type of state it is supposed to help legitimise. The genealogical critique is anchored in recent work on ideology in epistemology and philosophy of language, as well as in current debates on the methodology of political philosophy. So our broader aim is to show how there is room for genealogical ideology critique within normative political theory. But, unlike more traditional approaches that aim to debunk whole concepts or even entire belief systems, we propose a more targeted, argument-specific form of ideology critique.
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