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The Acquisitive Society

R. H. Tawney

Ethical / associational socialism

It is a key text of ethical socialism, grounding economic reform in moral and functional rather than purely material terms.

Synopsis

A critique of capitalism as a system organized around acquisition without purpose, arguing economic life must serve social function and morality.

Core passage idea

Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted work

A society fixated on acquiring rights and wealth without corresponding duties or function loses any moral foundation.

It insists economic activity must justify itself by the service it renders, not by the riches it accumulates.

To avoid a bubble

Pair with G. D. H. Cole, Guild Socialism Restated.

Reading note

Read it for its moral argument about function and duty, central to the British associational socialist tradition.

Best paired with

G. D. H. Cole, Guild Socialism Restated

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