What Are “The Means of Production”?

The thesis of this article is that political philosophy can and ought to make use of the concept of the means of production. The thesis is not that justice requires public ownership or that justice permits or requires (possibilities of) private ownership of the means of production. Nor does the arti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe journal of political philosophy Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 421 - 437
Main Author Edmundson, William A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2020
Subjects
Justice
Ownership
Political philosophy
Production
Public ownership
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Summary:The thesis of this article is that political philosophy can and ought to make use of the concept of the means of production. The thesis is not that justice requires public ownership or that justice permits or requires (possibilities of) private ownership of the means of production. Nor does the article stake out a position on what public ownership might or might not consist in. These are important but further questions. But if there is no important and coherent category answering to the term, "the means of production," there is not likely to be any good return paid for worrying over ownership of them qua things of that kind.
ISSN:0963-8016
1467-9760
DOI:10.1111/jopp.12211