A radical reconsideration of the meaning of freedom and morality in the modern world. Why is it so many of us lack contentment, despite all the wealth and freedoms we enjoy? The past two centuries delivered individual and political freedoms that promised unprecedented opportunities for personal fulfilment. Yet citizens of affluent countries are encouraged to pursue lives of consumerism, endless choice and the pleasures of the body. Clive Hamilton argues that the paradox of modern consumer life is that we are deprived of our inner freedom by our very pursuit of our own desires. He turns to metaphysics to find a source of transformation that lies beyond the cultural, political and social philosophies that form the bedrock of contemporary western thought. His search takes him to an unexpected conclusion: that we cannot be truly free unless we commit ourselves to a moral life. The implications of this conclusion are profound, and they challenge many deeply held beliefs in modern secular society. The Freedom Paradox is a bold and important work that goes to the heart of what it means to be human.
ABC Radio National's Big Ideas
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigideas/stories/2008/2340913.htm
or read the text under Speeches on this site.
What people are saying
"... an audacious attempt to build a metaphysics of morals ... it is one of Hamilton's gifts that he writes as if he genuinely seeks to engage the reader in conversation ... the book works like a collection of well-connected, educative essays as well as a treatise -- something which non-philosophers should appreciate." Brenton Holmes, The Canberra Times
"... an interesting, open-minded reflection mercifully free from fashionable opinion, dogma or ideology." John Carroll, Australian Literary Review
"Path-breaking." Justice Michael Kirby at the launch
"Hamilton is remarkably Rennaissance in his intellectual range, and now he has written an ambitious and peculiarly vulnerable book of philosophical abstraction and application ..." Pete Haye, The Monthly
The Asian Century Institute view is that Clive Hamilton's assessment of not only society, politics, and energy neglects the fact that markets fail. We don't live in rational economic world, asset bubbles, information asymmetry (the lemon principle), cartels, and monopoly markets natural or legislated. Government is driven by values and intervention in markets is driven by values. What is his take on the Baby Bonus, the rising cost of child care?
The other part that is lacking from his analysis, generally, is that the national electricity market and oil companies do not operate in a perfect market. There are only six electricity generators in the state of NSW who until recently were government owned. Regulating emissions means that this needs to be accounted for, as the least cost option of the regulation is not optimal -- read Hahn. His little social critique is that he is bald, is he in a minority? He is part of the economic establishment. Vision, no -- he should just join Shane Warne on those hair replacement ads. Is his social tirade a product of compensation for a lack of hair and a reaction the body beautiful culture.
One more thing is that politics in Australia are determined by one paternalistic conservatives who in reality increase regulatory red tape and the labour party who only exist as a result of the market failure or power asymmetry in the labour market. MIlton Friedman: marriage a social contract; maybe he doesn't like the division of property rights in this manner; or the the fact that the marriage contract can be a perfect example of the lemon priciple or information assymetry; you don't know what you are getting -- a bit like buying a used car.
Comment written by the only realist on the face of planet.................................!
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