Abstract
What is moral socialism? “If we seek an answer for those who hesitate and ask us whether they should be socialists or not,” wrote the Austro-Marxist Otto Bauer over a century ago, “we still need Kant’s ethics.”
In this opening lecture, Lea Ypi reflects on the failures of state socialism and capitalism in the 20th century and proposes a new path forward. Her analysis aims to revive the Enlightenment critique of technocratic reason and draws on a universal conception of freedom as moral agency.
