ABSTRACT
In Chapters 7-9 we have discussed several alternative ethical theories that can be used to evaluate the market system: utilitarianism, the ethics of duty, rights ethics and (several variants of) ethics of justice. Although these theories apply different criteria to judge the value of market operation, there are important similarities. In particular, in utilitarianism, duty ethics, rights ethics and (some forms) of the ethics of justice the autonomy of the individual is an important cornerstone for the evaluative analysis. For example, as we have seen in Chapter 7, utilitarianism is based on the aggregation of individual utilities that, in the case of the formal variant of welfarism, are defined as the satisfaction of individually determined preferences (individual sovereignty). Also Kant stresses the autonomy and rationality of the individual. The individualistic base of rights ethics, like the entitlement theory of Nozick, hardly needs explaining, since the most basic right is the right to individual freedom. Even the theory of justice, like that of Rawls, can be termed individualistic. Although Rawls’s theory of justice calls for substantial redistribution of wealth and power, it does so in the name of providing citizens with the means to plan and implement their own views of the good with little concern about communal values over and above their own desires and needs (Anderson, 1998). Because of the individualistic basis of these ethical theories, they can all be classified as belonging to the liberal tradition.
