How Capitalism Undermines Freedom

A prominent tradition in philosophy maintains that, unlike other species, humans experience freedom in connection to moral responsibility. On this account, freedom has both an internal and an external component. Internal freedom is the freedom required to think what is right. External freedom is the freedom required to do what is right. I call the freedom that enables us to do what is right, freedom of agency. I use the term agency to distinguish it from choice, which I understand as capacity to select between different options. The argument I explore in this lecture is that capitalism structurally undermines our freedom of agency even as it seems to respect our freedom of choice. I further argue that the symptom of capitalist structural unfreedom is the alienation of agents.  I conclude by discussing some objections and implications for institutional design and political action.