Freedom in Capitalism?

Abstract

This article seeks to learn more about the freedom of individuals under capitalism. To do so, it will keep referring back to the idea of a capitalist offering a poor person a job and whether this makes them unfree or not. The aim will be to answer the question of “Can we be free under capitalism?”. This will be done by employing different understandings of freedom. Before diving into this, some more information will be given about capitalism. Then, the article will dive into four conceptions of freedom. Firstly, to expand on negative liberty, Hobbes, Berlin, Cohen and Wener will be brought up. The second understanding of freedom will be the ‘real possibilities’ one, focusing on Amartya Sen. Thirdly, the republican theory will look into Rousseau and lastly, Marx will be used to expand on freedom as self-rule.

Keywords

• capitalism
• freedom
• negative liberty
• self-rule