Title: WPS Talk: Garrath Williams (Lancaster), '"Free Markets": A Kantian Perspective'

When: 16:00 –17:30, Thursday February 22^nd 2024

Where: Online

Notes: "Free Markets": A Kantian Perspective           

Garrath Williams (Lancaster University)

 'We hear a lot about the virtues of “free markets.” We also hear a lot about their problems and, by implication, the need to constrain markets. In this talk, I sketch an alternative, Kantian way of framing markets – as public goods. First, I explain the central ideas of Kant’s political theory – how states must uphold freedom and rights through coercive laws. I suggest that, for Kant, markets rest on a public framework, not just on individual rights. I also point out how individual rights to property and contract can, in situations of inequality, undermine their Kantian justification. Overall, I claim that markets are free where they enable people to act as not-mere-means for one another. These Kantian markets have little to do with familiar economic or neoliberal notions of market freedom.'

 The talk will be held on Microsoft Teams, at the following link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3aUtZSj9OS4MEk1NpjGh4vVXTze_u8LPnOA5bAsLYZflo1%40thread.tacv2/1705674297265?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2209bacfbd-47ef-4465-9265-3546f2eaf6bc%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f3669835-5e79-46c5-a603-ed6fbf2d14d2%22%7dLink opens in a new window

 Contact: Noah.Buckle@warwick.ac.uk