Lea Ypi (LSE London): How Capitalism Undermines Freedom [Teil der Ringvorlesung: Demokratie unter Druck. Beginnt ein autoritäres Zeitalter?]

A prominent philosophical tradition holds that human freedom is inseparable from moral responsibility. This type of freedom, which I call freedom of agency, has two dimensions — internal freedom, the freedom to think what is right, and external freedom, the freedom to do what is right. I use the term 'agency' to distinguish it from 'choice' which I understand as the capacity to select between different options. This lecture argues that capitalism systematically undermines freedom of agency even as it seems to expand freedom of choice.

Lea Ypi is the Ralph Miliband Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the LSE and a fellow of the British Academy. A native of Albania, she studied Philosophy and then Literature at the University of Rome, La Sapienza, and was a Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. She is the recipient of many prizes, including the Philip Leverhulme Prize for exceptional research achievement and the British Academy Brian Barry Prize for excellence in Political Science. Her last book, Free, was awarded the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2021 and the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2022, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the Costa Biography Award 2021, and the Gordon Burn Prize 2022, and has been sold in more than 30 languages. She contributes regularly to The Guardian and Financial Times. Indignity is her latest book.