Table Of ContentAs Free and as Just
as Possible
Blackwell Public Philosophy
Edited by Michael Boylan, Marymount University
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As Free and as Just as Possible: The Theory of Marxian Liberalism
by Jeffrey Reiman
As Free and as Just
as Possible
The Theory of Marxian Liberalism
Jeffrey Reiman
A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
This edition first published 2012
© 2012 Jeffrey Reiman
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reiman, Jeffrey H.
As free and as just as possible : the theory of Marxian liberalism / Jeffrey Reiman.
p. cm. – (Blackwell public philosophy; 12)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-67412-3 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Liberalism–Philosophy. 2. Philosophy, Marxist. 3. Rawls, John, 1921-2002. I. Title.
JC574.R445 2012
335.401–dc23
2011044951
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Set in 10.5/13.5 pt Palatino by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited
1 2012
For Sue
Contents
List of Abbreviations ix
Preface xi
1 Overview of the Argument for Marxian Liberalism 1
2 Marx and Rawls and Justice 29
2.1 Marx’s Theory of Capitalism and Its Ideology 30
2.2 Rawls’s Theory of Justice as Fairness 39
2.3 Rawls on Marx 52
2.4 Marx and Justice 57
2.5 Marxian Liberalism’s Historical Conception of
Justice 61
3 The Natural Right to Liberty and the Need for a Social
Contract 67
3.1 A Lockean Argument for the Right to Liberty 70
3.2 Our Rational Moral Competence 78
3.3 From Liberty to Lockean Contractarianism 88
vii
Contents
4 The Ambivalence of Property: Expression of Liberty
and Threat to Liberty 94
4.1 Locke, Nozick, and the Ambivalence of Property 96
4.2 Kant, Narveson, and the Ambivalence of Property 102
4.3 Marx and the Structural Coerciveness of Property 111
5 The Labor Theory of the Difference Principle 122
5.1 The Moral Version of the Labor Theory of Value 123
5.2 The Labor Theory of the Difference Principle 128
5.3 Finding a Just Distribution 133
5.4 Is the Difference Principle Biased? 141
5.5 Answering Narveson and Cohen on Incentives 147
6 The Marxian-Liberal Original Position 158
6.1 Property and Subjugation 160
6.2 The Limits of Property 163
6.3 The Marxian Theory of the Conditions of Liberty 168
6.4 Inside the Marxian-Liberal Original Position 172
6.5 The Difference Principle as a Historical Principle of
Justice 183
7 As Free and as Just as Possible: Capitalism for Marxists,
Communism for Liberals 190
7.1 The Just State 191
7.2 Capitalism for Marxists 195
7.3 The Marxian-Liberal Ideal: Property-Owning
Democracy 197
7.4 Communism for Liberals 204
Conclusion: Marx’s “Liberalism,” Rawls’s “Labor Theory of
Justice” 210
Index 221
viii
