Join us for the Brian Barry Memorial Lecture, an annual event honouring the work of political philosopher and former colleague, Professor Brian Barry. This year’s lecture will be given by Professor Chiara Cordelli who will speak on the theme 'Capitalism, Alienation, and the Rule of None'.
Political philosophy has witnessed a revival of debates about the wrong of capitalism and the point of socialism. Some argue that capitalism is unjustly exploitative, but only contingently on unjust distributions. Others have objected that capitalism is intrinsically unjust, because of domination, regardless of the presence of distributive injustice. The lecture will argue that both views provide an insufficient critique of capitalism and will propose a novel normative critique of capitalism focused on alienation and control over investment.
This lecture will take place in the Old Theatre, the Old Building at LSE. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Old Building atrium.
Meet the speaker
Chiara Cordelli is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and affiliated faculty in Philosophy. She is also Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for History and Economics at Sciences Po. Beyond her published articles, she is the author of The Privatized State (Princeton University Press, 2020), which was awarded the 2021 ECPR Political Theory Prize for best first book in political theory, and of Privatocrazia (Mondadori 2022), as well as the editor of NOMOS and the co-editor of Philanthropy in Democratic Societies (University of Chicago Press, 2016). Cordelli has held visiting positions at Stanford, Princeton, Harvard and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Her current book project, Ruled by None: A Political Theory of Capitalism (under contract with PUP) develops an alienation-centered critique of capitalism and a normative case for financial democracy.
Meet the chair
Kai Spiekermann is Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. Among his research interests are normative and positive political theory, philosophy of the social sciences, social epistemology and environmental change. He is particularly interested in applying formal methods, computational simulations, and experiments to problems in political philosophy. His recent publications have focused on mechanisms of norm avoidance, strategic ignorance and moral knowledge, on information aggregation, jury theorems and epistemic democracy, and on reductionism and holism in the social sciences.
LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of The London School of Economics and Political Science.