Is social philosophy a no man’s land? Reflections on the idea of an emancipation from political economy

Abstract

The field of social philosophy can be seen as a no man’s land created by the process of empowerment of economics and especially its emancipation from politics. The aim of this article is to demonstrate two points. First, this emancipation process is a policy whose purpose is to submit politics to economic imperatives. Second, there is a separate conception of political economy, in line with the work of Hume and Smith, which tightly links economics and philosophy. Both points serve to show that the idea that social philosophy is a no man’s land is invalid.

JEL classification: A12, B12, P16

Keywords

• social philosophy
• political economy
• economic emancipation