I can agree that 'capitalism is advocated by 
Friedman within a moral constraint/vision', but I 
wonder about that constraint/vision.  (This 
question may simply display my ignorance of some 
key texts, but:)  Does Friedman explain how this 
moral vision comes into existence and how it is 
maintained (is it generated or supported by the 
practices of capitalism)?  What is the relation 
between the on-going practice of capitalism and 
the "moral constaint/vision"?

Thanks, Peter





>Roger and Brad are to be congratulated for both 
>the original NYT publication and their r
>esponse on this list. (Indeed, there are important genre differences.)
>If they and the list-moderator don't mind, I 
>would still like to press a point about 
>Friedman. I agree that Capitalism and Freedom 
>provides very good evidence for their main claim 
>about him. But even so, it is misleading, I 
>think, to see him merely as advocate of 
>"competitive capitalism" (understood as "free 
>private enterprise exchange economy" based on 
>voluntary exchange.) Friedman is an advocate of 
>capitalism and (classical) liberalism. We can 
>see this quite easily when we conjoin to 
>passages in Capitalism and Freedom: first, "It 
>isŠclearly possible to have economic 
>arrangements that are fundamentally capitalist 
>and political arrangements that are not free 
>(Capitalism and Freedom, 10). Yet, Friedman does 
>not rest content with advocating competitive 
>capitalism. For, a few pages down he writes, "To 
>deny that the end justifies the means is 
>indirectly to assert that the end in question is 
>not the ultimate end, that the ultimate end is 
>itself the use of proper means. Desirable or 
>not, any end that can be attained only by the 
>use of bad means must give way to the more basic 
>end of the use of acceptable means. To the 
>liberal, the appropriate means are free 
>discussion and voluntary co-operation, which 
>implies that any form of coercion is 
>inappropriate (Capitalism and Freedom, 22)."
>
>
>That is to say, Capitalism is advocated by 
>Friedman within a moral constraint/vision. And 
>this is compatible with the evidence that I 
>provided in earlier part of the exchange that 
>Friedman believes that shared values play a 
>crucial background role in a society. (I have 
>argued elsewhere that this commitment also made 
>Friedman vulnerable when dealing with societies 
>where no such shared values obtain.)
>Sincerely,
>Eric
>
>
>BOF Research Professor, Philosophy and Moral 
>Sciences, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, 
>Ghent, B-9000, Belgium. Phone: (31)-(0)6-15005958
>Fall 2011: Visiting Associate Professor, UC, Santa Barbara
>http://www.newappsblog.com/
>http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=649484
>http://philpapers.org/s/Eric%20Schliesser
>


-- 
Peter G. Stillman
Department of Political Science
Vassar College (#463)
124 Raymond Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604-0463

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http://faculty.vassar.edu/stillman/