Socialism: Utilitarian and deontic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21814/eps.5.1.179Keywords:
deontology, dialogism, socialism, utilitarianismAbstract
This article argues that those who advocate the capitalist market system on the basis of the ‘invisible
hand’ or ‘spontaneous order’ belong to a tradition in political philosophy which attempts to find ways
to get the most out of a flawed human nature, whereas socialists tend to belong to the opposing
tradition which maintains faith in human improvement. The former tradition involves a kind of
consequentialism in which goodness can be achieved irrespective of people’s intentions, whereas the
latter tradition, with its emphasis on conscious decision making and the ‘good will’, includes Kantian
deontology. Both utilitarian and deontological arguments for socialism are discussed, but it is argued
that the emphases on human dignity and on deliberate planned action make socialist arguments sit
more comfortably with deontology. This is most clearly the case when socialist thinkers transform
Kantian monological universality into dialogical and communicative mutuality.
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