‘Ethical Capitalism’ Needed in Modern World, Philosopher Markus Gabriel Says at YIES Lecture

The Japan News

6:00 JST, September 27, 2025

Markus Gabriel, a renowned philosopher, emphasized the necessity of “ethical capitalism” to counter “authoritarian capitalism” at a lecture held in Tokyo on Friday.

At the lecture organized by the Yomiuri International Economic Society, Gabriel, a professor at the University of Bonn in Germany, said, “Authoritarian capitalism is coming, but it’s not there yet.”

Gabriel added there are two forms of authoritarian capitalism: demagogic and bureaucratic. The first kind poses an internal threat to liberal democracies if they come under the influence of a demagogic figure. Some have said China adopts bureaucratic authoritarian capitalism, though Gabriel himself disagrees, as he does not believe the country is capitalist.

Gabriel also discussed neo-illiberalism, characterizing it with three features: labor suppression, ethno-nationalism and clientelism. Under neo-illiberalism, labor rights would be suppressed or destroyed, he said. He also stressed that “we need good political science to really study” regimes that are not liberal democracies.

The world faces “nested crises,” where several crises “hang together in a spiral … [and] form a typhoon,” according to Gabriel. “If you start from AI … everything will look like an AI problem for you.”

Another topic Gabriel spoke about was the “invisible hand,” which is a metaphor introduced by 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith. According to the metaphor, the accumulation of people pursuing their own self-interest may unintentionally bring about beneficial social and economic outcomes.

“I think that what Adam Smith called the ‘invisible hand’ is not a mathematical law of markets. That was just a mistake,” Gabriel said. He instead described the invisible hand as an example of “sympathy” and ethical capitalism.

Gabriel has been advocating ethical capitalism, in which ethics is an essential part of economic activities. At the lecture, he highlighted the importance of the idea by presenting an example of whether to prioritize renewable energy or fossil fuel. He said that it is important to “lead not just in markets but in values.”