Category: Philosophy

In Reviving the Strike, Joe Burns argues that for organized labor to regain the power it once had, labor unions must revive the production-halting strike. During labor’s heyday, unions regularly and repeatedly utilized the tactic of production-halting strikes to win major gains for workers across the country. In the latter part of the 20th century… Continue reading Reviving the Strike and the ethics of labor commodification

Formalized identity politics grew out of the insufficiency of left politics in the middle of the 20th century. At the time and in subsequent years, proponents of identity politics (identitarians) raised a series of devastatingly precise criticisms that have fundamentally changed the way the left operates. The left’s almost uniform focus on class oppression has… Continue reading A problem with one facet of identity politics

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to come at theories of economic justice and economic viability. There are normative approaches that focus on moral arguments, and there are “scientific” approaches that focus on the flaws within economic systems. I tend to favor the first approach, but at times relying on the latter approach can be… Continue reading A problem with laissez-faire political equilibriums

Libertarians have long been partial to what they believe to be John Locke’s theory of property. On first glance, this is understandable: the snippets of John Locke that are most often taught seem very libertarian in nature. In his Second Treatise of Government, Locke ostensibly argues that when an individual mixes their labor with an… Continue reading Reclaiming John Locke from libertarians

The three philosophical frameworks that conservative intellectuals tend to rely on are desert theory, utilitarianism, and procedural justice. Desert theory emphasizes the construction of an economy that awards each economic actor what they deserve, which conservatives usually define in terms of productivity. Utilitarians insist that the economy should be structured in a way that maximizes… Continue reading Using copyright debates to understand conservative economic philosophies