Equality rights and the autonomous self : toward a conservative economics Modern liberalism asserts the transcendental autonomous selfs natural rights against others moralistic and political preferences and regards the economists utilitarian social welfare theory as instrumental to the achievement of social justice. Timothy Roth argues that the liberal enterprise ignores Kants two points of view confuses Kantian autonomy with moral and political license mistakes utilitarian impersonality for impartiality and takes no account of the indeterminacy of social welfare theorys fundamental theoretical constructs. In contrast the author shows that Kants two points of view inform the conservatives constitutive political position and animate the consequence detached explicitly normative work of the conservative constitutional political economist. He shows that unlike modern liberalism conservatism is grounded in Kants two points of view that utilitarian social welfare theory cannot be instrumental to the achievement of social justice and that constitutional political economy is conservative economics. Economists interested in political economy methodological issues social welfare theory public choice theory or the moral foundations of economics will find much of interest in this thought provoking volume. Political scientists interested in the philosophical foundations of modern liberalism and conservatism will also want to add this title to their library