Paradoxy liberální svobody: revize klasických předpokladů svobody

Kolínský, Ondřej

Current criticism of liberalism is usually based on ad hoc economic and social arguments. In this bachelor thesis, on the contrary, we seek to verify to what extent the very core of the classical liberal doctrine is consistent with the findings of modern economics. In the first part, we examine the writings of the fathers of economic liberalism; Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Friedrich August von Hayek. On their grounds, we describe and specify the type of liberty this paper is concerned with. Also, we show what beliefs these philosophers held regarding the question of human rationality. In the second part, we provide some philosophical background to the question of freedom and explain how it is interconnected with rationality. Finally, in the third part, we draw some empirical findings from behavioral economics, which aims at explaining the disparity between preferences and actual decisions of people. By contrasting these discoveries with the original liberal ideas, we are able to identify specific points, where the classical theorists incline to misleading beliefs. The aim of this paper is to assess how grave the implications of these errors are and how they could be addressed within the framework of liberalism. We also estimate their impact on the market interaction and examine possible...

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