The politics and morality of inheritance

Inheritance is often seen as a matter of numbers, succession, and wealth transfer. Yet beyond balance sheets and wills, it reveals a more intimate relationship with value, work, family, capital, and social justice.

Between merit and privilege, between what we build and what we receive, inheritance questions the implicit and explicit social contract of our societies.

In this two-way conversation, Philippe Van Parijs, philosopher, economist, and professor emeritus at UCLouvain, and Mathieu Possoz, tax lawyer, philosopher, lecturer at UCL and UNamur, and member of the Wallonia Taxation and Finance Council, will share their perspectives to explore what it means to inherit today—materially, socially, and morally.

They will address the tension between work and inheritance, the boundary between private wealth and collective responsibility, and the question of meaning in a world that is trying to find the right balance between wealth and values.