Abstract

Opacity in the workplace and in market transaction is often seen as benign, or as a byproduct of a system that is, overall, justified. Markets, for example, coordinate supply and demand by abstracting away from a great deal of information; in firms, managers have a great deal of control over the flow of information. Economic agents, however, have a freedom-based complaint if their workplace or their economy is highly opaque. In this talk, I will make the case that such opacity interferes with workers’ subjective freedom, or their ability to act on reasons they endorse. I will argue that this account of freedom is needed to make sense of some bad-making features of opacity. Furthermore, we should be concerned if there is an unequal distribution of the opportunity to be subjectively free, on grounds of justice.