Preface:

• Why this book? And why now?

CH.1: Introduction: Overview and plan of the book

• The power of narratives
• Central themes
• Some terminology clarified:
  • Feudalism
  • Mercantilism
  • Capitalism
  • Natural Capitalism, Biocentrism, and Biosphere Consciousness
  • Markets
  • Classical Liberalism and Progressive Liberalism
• The plan of the book

Part I: Sustainability and Natural Capitalism:

CH.2: Genuine sustainability and what it will require of us

• How is “sustainability” to be defined?
• Political sustainability

CH.3: Natural Capitalism: A hopeful alternative

• A new focus for productivity
• The four principles of Natural Capitalism
  • First principle: maximize resource productivity
  • Second principle: biomimicry – closed-loop systems
  • Third principle: cradle to cradle – a new business model
  • Fourth principle: restoring natural capital
• Concluding remarks

CH.4: Natural Capitalism: The underlying narrative

• The infrastructural requirements of Natural Capitalism and the Third Industrial Revolution
• The character of the post-TIR world
• The narrative of sustainability:
  • Valuing nature in and of itself
  • Adopting biosphere consciousness as a fundamental moral attitude
  • The role of humility and empathy
  • Collaboration (valuing cooperation over competition)
  • Valuing community (open communications, trust, and social capital)
  • The decentralization of political authority
  • The democratization of energy and economic opportunity
  • Prioritizing local adaptation and shared knowledge
  • Prioritizing human capital before industrial capital
  • Taking a long-term perspective
  • Prioritizing access to services before private ownership
  • Why it all depends on us as individuals
• Concluding remarks

Part II: Classical Liberalism: The Conceptual Foundations of Consumer Capitalism:

CH.5: John Locke and the Theory of Private Property

• Historical context and Locke’s motives
• The theory reconstructed
• Some consequences of the theory:
  • Our labour is alienable
  • We live in a meritocracy
  • The value of nature
  • The doctrine of Terra nullis and colonialism

CH.6: Adam Smith and the Laissez-Faire Market

• Historical context and Smith’s motives
• Reconstructing Smith’s theory
• Some consequences of the theory:
  • Self-interest versus selfishness as a motive
  • De-regulation
  • Privatization
  • Lower taxes

CH.7: Contrasting Visions: Classical vs. Progressive Liberalism and the Ideal State

• Robert Nozick: The Night Watchman State
  • Stage 1: Leaving anarchy behind
  • Stage 2: Limits of the state
• John Rawls: Justice as Fairness
  • Stage 1: The principles of justice
  • Stage 2: The original position
• The two views compared:
  • Joseph Stiglitz and the price of inequality
  • Robert Putnam and social capital

CH.8: Corporate Governance and the Limits of Corporate Responsibility

• The Shareholder model (Milton Friedman)
• The Stakeholder model (R. Edward Freeman)
• Summary and conclusions

Part III: Classical Liberalism Through a Normative Lens:

CH.9: Consequentialist Moral Theories

• Historical context and motivations
• Rule Utilitarianism
  • Stage 1: The standard version of John Stuart Mill
  • Stage 2: Preference Utilitarianism
• Why Preference Utilitarianism is such a good fit for Classical Liberalism:
  • It provides the justifications for Classical Liberal prescriptions
  • It gives moral content to the idea of “Making the world a better place”
  • It makes its prescriptions on the basis of a kind of Cost-Benefit accounting
• Re-evaluating the “fit” of Preference Utilitarianism for Classical Liberalism:
  • The absurdity of Human Rights
  • The re-imagination of Justice
  • Instrumentalizing our relations to others

CH.10: Kantian Duty Theory and the Deontological Normative Tradition

• Kant’s historical context and motivations
• The theory reconstructed
  • The Categorical Imperative: the fundamental law in its first formulation
  • The Practical Imperative: the fundamental law in its second formulation
  • The Kingdom of Ends: The fundamental law in its third formulation
  • The nature of our duties: Perfect vs. Imperfect duties and duties to others vs. duties to self
• Kantian Duty Theory and Classical Liberalism
  • Agreement with Locke on the right to autonomy
  • Emphasizes our relationships to one another
  • The problem of non-human animals
  • Globalization and respect for others
  • The problem of motives
• Summary and conclusions

CH.11: Concluding remarks

• Why the Green New Deal is not the old New Deal
• Sustainability will not look the same everywhere
• Sizing up the alternatives
  • Classical Liberalism: a worldview past its shelf life
  • Biosphere Consciousness: a worldview for a sustainable future