PPE Speaker Series: “What Is the Wrong of Capitalism?” with Chiara Cordelli (University of Chicago)

Abstract:
Political theory is witnessing a revival of normative critiques of capitalism. Against those who argue that capitalism is unjust because of its distributive outcomes, workers’ oppression within the workplace, or their exploitation by capitalists, radical republicans have argued that the distinctive wrong of capitalism amounts to a form of structural domination. The point of socialism, in turn, would be to achieve non-domination within the labor process, by means of workers’ ownership and control. My goal will be, first, to show the limits of (radical) republicanism as a critique of capitalism. I will, second, sketch an alternative account of the distinctive wrong of capitalism as an alienated relation between citizens and their socio-political order. Such account focuses on the mode of investment, rather than on the labor process, as the core site of capitalist reproduction. I will conclude by arguing that overcoming alienation would require the socialization and planning of investment.

This talk is free and open to the public. It also serves as a CLE credit event. Stick around after the talk for Q&A and pizza!

Speaker Bio:

Chiara Cordelli is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Her main areas of research are social and political philosophy, with a particular focus on theories of distributive justice, political legitimacy, normative defenses of the state, and the public/private distinction in liberal theory. She is the author of The Privatized State (Princeton University Press, 2020), which was awarded the 2021 ECPR political theory prize for best first book in political theory. She is also the co-editor of, and a contributor to, Philanthropy in Democratic Societies (University of Chicago Press, 2016).