Markets with Limits: How the Commodification of Academia Derails Debate by James Stacey Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is James Stacey Taylor's critique of Jason Brennan and Peter Jaworski's Markets without Limits: Moral Virtues and Commercial Interests. I'm a big fan of B&J's book, notwithstanding some concerns I would make of aspects of their arguments. I've also followed Taylor's work, and was hoping for an interesting dialogue. Unfortunately, we don't get that. Some of Taylor's criticisms hit the mark, but I am unpersuaded by his deeper points. At times I think he's uncharitable and other times he seems to be misunderstanding them (the same could be said of some of B&J's criticisms of Taylor's book). There are important things Taylor brings up about scholarship and some of its problems, though I'm not convinced his diagnosis is accurate or that his prescription is warranted.
I edited an issue of Reason Papers which features a symposium of Taylor's book. Check it out here: https://reasonpapers.com/
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