ABSTRACT
This chapter offers Gewirthian perspectives on the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. We look at the key agents, agencies, and aftermath of the crisis. We then give a brief exposition of Thomas Piketty's seminal work, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and the fundamental force for divergence of wealth distribution, r > g, with particular attention to the prospects of a ‘social state’ in this century. Finally, we suggest that Alan Gewirth's philosophy is of vital importance in clarifying fundamental problems of inequality and the adverse impacts of the financial sector on human rights. Gewirthian theses concerning mutuality, justice, equality, social contribution, economic redistribution, economic democracy, and political democracy help illuminate the crisis of global capitalism and inequality. Is a global community of rights possible in the twenty-first century? Yes, but human mutuality and the categorical requirements of the Principle of Generic Consistency (PGC), as a principle of reasonableness, are more pressing today than ever in light of increasing global inequality.
