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Corporate Capitalism and Political Philosophy

Corporate Capitalism and Political Philosophy

Suman Gupta

(2001)

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Book Details

Abstract

Corporate capitalism is usually examined from a sociological or economic viewpoint, and this book breaks new ground in providing a thorough account of the mechanisms which define it from a philosophical perspective, revealing how these processes determine the way we live today.

Marxist and other left-oriented political philosophies had ideological roots that were based, sometimes incongruously, on particular economic and sociological readings of the capitalist process. Political philosophies associated with conservatism and neoliberalism have either been assimilated within capitalist discourses, or they have been designed to justify corporate capitalist processes.

This book re-examines these issues with an unusually dispassionate approach, providing a systematic view of contemporary corporate capitalism in all its complexity, without expecting the reader to have a specialist knowledge of sociology or economics. It clarifies the scope of political philosophy by reflecting on its own methodology and practice, and offers a controversial conclusion that within contemporary corporate capitalist modes of organisation there is actually no space left for political philosophy at all, as corporate capitalism systematically denies all political agents an ability to exercise their political will.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Contents v
Acknowledgements vii
Part I: Philosophical Methods and Capitalist Processes: Means, Definitions, Intentions 1
1 The Evasiveness of Corporate Capitalism 3
2 The Political State 12
3 The Capitalist Corporation 21
4 The Contradictions of Capitalism 28
5 Intentional Systems 52
Part II: Reasons, Causes and Practices in Contemporary Corporate Capitalism 63
6 Classical Sociology and Managerialism 65
7 Management Discourses 92
8 The Macro Issues Behind Executive Pay 113
9 Corporatism and the Corporate Capitalist State 139
10 Corporate Capitalist States and International Relations 155
11 The Mechanics of Disablement 171
Part III: The Disabled Political Will and Anti-Political Philosophy 169
12 The Anti-Political Self-Defeat of Mannheim 185
13 Popper's Anti-Political Philosophical Tendencies 197
14 Hayek and the Mature Anti-Political Philosophy 210
15 Nozick's Anti-Political Philosophy 225
16 Fukuyama's Anti-Political Philosophy 244
17 The Need for Rational Utopian Thinking 255
Notes 263
Chapter 1 263
Chapter 2 265
Chapter 3 265
Chapter 4 266
Chapter 5 267
Chapter 6 268
Chapter 7 269
Chapter 8 271
Chapter 9 275
Chapter 10 276
Chapter 11 277
Chapter 12 278
Chapter 13 279
Chapter 14 280
Chapter 15 282
Chapter 16 283
Chapter 17 283
Index 284
anarchy 158
in international politics 158 -60 158
Nozick on 226 -7 226
Nozick on 231 -4 231