Kory P. Schaff (California State University, Los Angeles) will give a presentation entitled “Free from Work? Dependence, Independence, and Automation” as part of the activities of the Philosophy of Work Network.

The activities of the Philosophy of Work Network are open to researchers and graduate students with research interests in this area. Please write to the organizers, Denise Celentano (denise.celentano@umontreal.ca) and Pablo Gilabert (pablo.gilabert@concordia.ca), to receive the Zoom link.

Abstract

The automation of tasks accelerating in the labor market threatens a sizeable portion of workers with unemployment through no fault of their own. While technological unemployment in general is thought to be temporary, many economists are worried that the scope and depth of automation now taking place will leave many permanently unemployed. This threat raises the obvious question: what will they do for their own welfare including the satisfaction of needs and pursuit of life plans? Underlying this question is a conception of freedom that includes some form of self-sufficiency: that is, individuals are independent insofar as they can satisfy their own welfare. In this paper, I explore the arguments in support of this conception and evaluate whether they serve as the basis for a critique of automation. The philosophical question pursued here is, can one be “free” without work?