ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by analyzing capitalism as the economic system that dominates the world. Next, we examine the conception of the self that underpins the capitalist world order, tracing this conception back to the social contract theories of the early-modern period. The next two sections tackle the notion that there is no alternative to capitalism as we find it today, first by diagnosing the claim critically and then by undermining it by sketching an alternative. Finally, we look at how the alternative can be given a foundation in a form of social contract theory not explored so far: the idea of a general will first articulated by Rousseau.
