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On Civilizing Capitalism

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Brian Ellis

    1. La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

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  • Shows how economics, political theory and ethics are based in pre-scientific intuitions about human nature and agency

  • Explains how the Welfare State and Keynesian economics were more scientifically grounded and why they succeeded

  • Advocates a scientific philosophy based on actual societies, economies and agreed values to enable humans to flourish

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Evolution and Structure

    • Brian Ellis
    Pages 1-13

  3. Social Democracy

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15
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    2. Realism in Social Theory

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 17-37

    3. Social Morality

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 39-50

    4. First Philosophy

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 51-88

    5. Social Democracy and Social Progress

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 89-112

  4. The Philosophy of the Welfare State

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-113
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    2. The Secular States

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 115-125

    3. Eudaimonism

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 127-140

    4. Liberty

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 141-156

    5. Rights

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 157-171

    6. Individualism

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 173-183

    7. Social Contracts

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 185-203

    8. Humanistic Ethics

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 205-213

    9. The New Welfare State

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 215-226

    10. The New World

      • Brian Ellis
      Pages 227-240

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 241-254
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Keywords

About this book

This book shows how modern political, economic and moral theory, including our ideas of liberty and individualism, are trapped in 17th century notions of intuitive reasoning and not informed by modern scientific understanding. Brian Ellis starts with a re-appraisal of the founding of the United Nations and the political and economic policies of the post-war reconstruction period. He then shows how this period, despite its many faults, embodied a philosophy more closely embedded in scientific realism than dominant theories of either left or right today. He goes on to develop this philosophy, meticulously, demolishing theories of Rawls, Nozick and others along the way.  The result is a philosophy that investigates how a society actually works, supports evidence-based economics and can better enable human beings to flourish. It is a philosophy that can also accommodate the historical differences between societies and their different, but parallel, development strategies over time.

Authors and Affiliations

  • La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Brian Ellis

About the author

Brian Ellis is a leading expert in the history and philosophy of science with wide-ranging expertise in political, ethical and economic philosophy, the philosophy of mind and action, logic and probability theory. He is Professor Emeritus in Philosophy, at La Trobe University, and former Professorial fellow, University of Melbourne.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: On Civilizing Capitalism

  • Authors: Brian Ellis

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29681-9

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-29680-2Published: 16 June 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-29683-3Due: 30 June 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-29681-9Published: 15 June 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 254

  • Topics: Political Philosophy, Ethics, Economics, general

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