Seeley Lectures 2019, Elizabeth Anderson (Michigan): Bentham and Malthus through the Lens of the Work Ethic: A Conservative Tale

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• Prof. Elizabeth Anderson (Philosophy and Women's Studies)
• Tuesday 14 May 2019, 17:00-19:00
• Runcie Room, Faculty of Divinity, Sidgwick Site, Cambridge.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Waseem Yaqoob.

Neoliberals deploy their ideology to justify public policies that put the interests of capital owners ahead of the interests of workers. The roots of this ideology can be traced to the Protestant work ethic, as advanced by 17th c. Puritan minister Richard Baxter. A close reading of Baxter’s theology reveals two contradictory sides of the work ethic: a progressive side exalting ordinary workers, and a conservative side rationalizing harsh treatment of poor workers. I re-interpret classic figures in the history of political thought through the lens of the work ethic, demonstrating how Locke and successors developed the progressive side of the work ethic, and Bentham and Malthus the conservative side. The subsequent history of social and economic policy in Europe and North America reflects the conflict between these two sides of the work ethic. Contemporary neoliberalism represents a victory for the conservative side. Yet from the start, the conservative work ethic contained contradictions, now on display in neoliberal theory and practice.

Professor Anderson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. Her work in moral and political philosophy focuses on democratic theory, with a particular focus on equality, race and the ethical limits of markets. She is currently working on a history of egalitarianism, examining the epistemology of moral learning through the prism of the history of abolitionism.

—- The Seeley Lectures, our premier lecture series, are given every two years. They are open to all and free of charge.

This talk is part of the Cambridge Centre for Political Thought series.

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• Cambridge Centre for Political Thought
• Runcie Room, Faculty of Divinity, Sidgwick Site, Cambridge

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