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This book presents a philosophical analysis of inherited wealth: it examines both the moral foundations of the right to bequeath wealth and the case for restricting that right with an inheritance tax. The book seeks to approach inheritance as a challenge with much contemporary significance but draws on ideas from the history of political philosophy. The positive proposals that emerge count as a sort of hybrid between luck egalitarian and social egalitarian conceptions of justice, with some sensitivity to utilitarian and libertarian insights. Chapter 1 lays out the main arguments and motivations in brief. Chapters 2 and 3 survey a variety of arguments from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, with a view to establishing which insights have enduring force. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 assemble an egalitarian case for restricting inherited wealth, though many particular egalitarian conceptions are rejected. The main positive point to emerge in these chapters is that unrestricted inheritance is unjust to the extent that it enables and enhances the intergenerational replication of inequality. Here, inequality is understood in a group-based sense: the unjust effects of inheritance are principally in its tendency to concentrate certain opportunities into certain groups. This results in economic segregation. Concern about this tendency represents a modification of a somewhat stronger but less precise concern about the role of inheritance in perpetuating class hierarchy. Chapters 7 and 8 engage, somewhat more piecemeal, with arguments from the libertarian tradition and with certain questions about the design of taxation schemes.

Inheritance and succession. --- Inheritance and transfer tax.

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"This book acquaints the reader with arguments for the moral foundations of market society, and the applications of these arguments. Broadly, the book encourages a distinction between capitalism construed as an ideal rather than as a label for the economic status quo and its associated injustices. These foundational arguments are compared with arguments in favour of socialism. Special attention is paid to historically significance figures such as Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and F.A.Hayek. Later chapters deal with more specific and contemporary themes. These include problems not fully foreseen by historic proponents of market order, such as the challenges of climate change, competitive consumption, and the need for an institutionalized order for global trade. Other chapters focus on institutions familiar to most market societies, such as a welfare state, as well as alternatives such as basic income.Overall, the book seeks to both revisit historically influential arguments for capitalism while also seeking to examine how these historical views stand up to contemporary challenges of economic justice. The book is written primarily for an audience of undergraduates (including majors in the humanities and the social sciences). But it would also be useful for anyone seeking a summary of major themes in political economy, particularly those with moral significance"--

Capitalism --- Moral and ethical aspects. --- Capitalism - Moral and ethical aspects.

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This is an undergraduate-level textbook that introduces classical political philosophy as a framework to evaluate the ethics of capitalism up to the present day. It is rooted in historical eighteenth- and nineteenth-century defenses of capitalism, as written by key proponents such as Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, and applies these arguments to contemporary issues such as wage inequality, global trade, climate change, and the welfare state. The authors aim to engage students in debating the ethics of economic systems-specifically capitalism, socialism, and feudalism-and whether various contemporary economic injustices can be interpreted as legacy of each system. There are also study questions at the end of each chapter and an author-created companion website.

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"In every western democracy today, inheritances have a very profound influence on people's lives. This motivates renewed scholarship on inheritance law by philosophy and the legal sciences. The present volume aims to contribute to some ongoing areas of inquiry while also filling some gaps in research. It is organised in a highly interdisciplinary way. In the sixteen chapters of the book, written by outstanding philosophers and legal scholars, the following questions, among others, are discussed. What is the nature of the right to bequeath? What are the social functions of bequest and inheritance? What arguments concerning justice have philosophers and legal scholars advanced in favour or against practices of bequest and inheritance? How should we think about taxing the wealth transfers that occur in bequest and inheritance? In discussing these questions, the authors break new ground and offer much-needed insight into a number of related domains, such as the philosophy of law, legal theory, general and applied ethics, social and political philosophy, theories of justice and the history of legal, political and economic thought. Engaging the philosophy of law, legal theory, general and applied ethics, social and political philosophy, theories of justice and the history of legal, political and economic thought, this book will be of great interest to scholars in these areas as well as policy makers"--

Inheritance and succession.