As Free and as Just as Possible

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As Free and as Just as Possible presents and defends Marxian Liberalism, a theory of justice that results from combining certain liberal beliefs, chiefly that people have a natural right to liberty understood as a right to be free from unwanted coercion, with certain Marxian beliefs, chiefly that private property is coercive. This combination implies that on liberal grounds, to be justified, private property must be consented to by everyone. A Lockean defense of the right to liberty is presented and, to determine what sort of private property would be consented to by everyone, a decision procedure modeled on Rawls's "original position" is deployed, with this difference: the knowledge that parties in this original position possess includes certain Marxian beliefs, among them that capitalism is the most powerful engine in history for increasing productivity, and thus for providing people with the material conditions of real freedom. Parties in this Marxian-Liberal original position will agree to private property limited by an egalitarian requirement: namely, a version of Rawls's difference principle. Marxian Liberalism takes justice to have a timeless form, but historically changing content, and calls for a highly egalitarian capitalism that is as free and as just as historically possible. This major new work performs a genuine philosophical service. While some may deem the combination of Marxism and liberalism exotic or impossible, many others will be glad to see liberalism's devotion to individual freedom leavened with structures that redress the economic and political inequalities of capitalism, and to see Marx's insights combined with a commitment to liberty.