Are Labor and Freedom Compatible? Political Economy, Hegel’s Practical Philosophy and the Young Marx

Kepa Ormazabal

No 22105, IKERLANAK from Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I

Abstract: The question discussed in this paper is whether a political society not emancipated from labor can be a free society. In a less abstract way, the question can be posed as follows; can a society with a laboring class and a labor market be free? The question arises because labor and freedom seem to be in conflict, so a society with a working class and a labor market can neither be free nor democratic. The opposition between labor and freedom has always been a central theme in Practical Philosophy, and its recurrent idea that labor involves an irretrievable loss of self-consciousness and, thereby, of freedom has survived right up to this day. The Marxian treatment of alienation is just an outstanding example of this old idea, but not a real novelty. In this paper I intend to explore an alternative path to the still dominant idea of Practical Philosophy by examining the ontological foundations of the alternative response developed by Hegel in his Philosophy of the Spirit.

Keywords: liberal; democracy; political; economy; freedom; labor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-pke
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Dpto. de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I, Facultad de CC. Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad del País Vasco, Avda. Lehendakari Aguirre 83, 48015 Bilbao, Spain

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