The economic philosophical aspects of consumerism

Abstract

In my study, I start from the preliminary thesis that philosophers were not particularly interested in consumerism but in the context of the history of ideas, however, I will try to outline a “theory of philosophical consumerism”. This overview comprises basically four main features. (1) Aristotle’s thoughts on consumerism are primarily expressed in the context of need. (2) The next important step came in the 18th century with the birth of economics. While this considered that consumerism had an important role to play, the focus was still on production. In the 19th century, Hegel and Marx will consider more deeply the relationship between production and consumerism. (3) In the 1960s, critical social theory raised the question of the manipulative power of consumerism. A major influence in this regard was Herbert Marcuse's book, The One-Dimensional Man. Referencing Aristotle, Marcuse claims that the expansion of consumerism impacts negatively on human freedom. (4) In the final part of the study, I will explore whether moral consumerism is possible. Based on the theory of Niklas Luhmann, and on certain analysis by Robert Pfaller and Roland Barthes, I will try to show that, contrary to Marcuse’s assumptions, there is indeed some forms of consumerism that can be interpreted as promoting freedom.