Much contemporary left thought focuses on what is wrong with capitalism. Is capitalism bad because of its unjust distributive outcomes? Or is it bad because workers are dominated, subjected to arbitrary power? Or does the badness of capitalism have to do with the opacity of the market and the way it prevents valuable forms of collective agency?

While this debate about what is wrong or unjust in capitalism is important, the Left also needs to articulate a positive vision of a good society that could replace capitalism. After all, simply highlighting the problems of capitalism is unlikely to be enough to persuade people to embrace socialism. And while Karl Marx wrote that it was not for him to write “recipes for the cook-shops of the future,” “unless we write recipes for future kitchens, there’s no reason to think we’ll get food we like,” as G. A. Cohen put it.

In my forthcoming book, Flourishing Together: Karl Marx’s Vision of the Good Society, I put forward a novel interpretation of Marx’s vision of the good society. This interpretation defends the centrality of personal development and satisfying the needs of others to human flourishing. On this view, we realize ourselves through providing others with the goods and services others need for their flourishing. I argue that this interpretation is appealing, and that it could provide the Left with an attractive account of an alternative to capitalism.