A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 25 “The Word ‘Honest’ Shows the Changing Attitude Toward the Aristocracy and the Bourgeois” Dr. McCloskey is moving further back in time in this fourth part of the book to examine societal changes in 1700s England that will lead to the Great Enrichment. There…
Category: Bourgeois Equality
Bourgeois Equality
Aspiring to Bourgeois Virtues
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 23 “Ben Franklin was Bourgeois and He Embodied Betterment” and Chapter 24 “By 1848 A Bourgeois Ideology Had Triumphed” Two more chapters to conclude this section of the book establishing the ideas that took root in the 1800s that allowed the Bourgeois Deal to…
Bourgeois Equality
Adam Smith Wanted You Free to Make Your Own Decisions
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 22 “And He Formulated the Bourgeois Deal” In this fourth and final chapter exploring Adam Smith’s impact, Dr. McCloskey explores his intellectual contribution toward a cultural shift to a favorable view of the rising bourgeois class. In the past three chapters, she has been…
Bourgeois Equality
But Adam Smith’s Dismissal of the Transcendent Ultimately Led to the Sociopath Max U
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 21 “That is, He was No Reductionist, Economistic or Otherwise” Dr. McCloskey opens this third chapter on Adam Smith, noting that he did not reduce ethics to just one virtue the way the Enlightenment ultimately did, …narrowing an ethical system down to, for example,…
Bourgeois Equality
Adam Smith is not Responsible for Sociopath Max U
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 20 “Smith was not a Max U, but Rather the Last of the Former Virtue Ethicists” Now I, an economist, need to write about ethics. The fact that is a challenge is in part, Dr. McCloskey’s critique of us economists. In the last chapter,…
Bourgeois Equality
Was Adam Smith Really So Pecuniary?
In this part of the book, Dr. McCloskey is continuing to demonstrate a positive shift in attitude towards the bourgeois, esteeming the virtues that will make the coming age of commerce possible. She is now going to write four (4!) chapters about Adam Smith so get ready for a deep…
Bourgeois Equality
When Earning Money Became a Virtue
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 18 “No Woman but a Blockhead Wrote for Anything but Money” In this chapter, Dr. McCloskey is continuing with the idea initiated the last chapter: Jane Austen illustrates the bourgeois ideals in her writing, though she herself was not bourgeois. Austen is gentry, not…
Bourgeois Equality
Backward History Reveals Why the Bourgeoisie Rise
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 17 “It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged that even Dr. Johnson and Jane Austen Exhibit the Revaluation” Dr. McCloskey begins Part 3 of this opus (there are 10 parts!) by delving further into the origination of the ideas that led to the Great Enrichment….
Bourgeois Equality
Are Libertarians Right about Government?
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 16 “Most Governmental Institutions Make Us Poorer” Calling all libertarians! I think this chapter is for you. This chapter wraps up Part 2. Chapters 10 and 11 showed the Left’s explanations for the Great Enrichment were wrong, but Chapter 12 and 13 did the…
Bourgeois Equality
Liberty and Dignity for Everyone Swamps Institution Quality
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 15 “And the Oomph of Institutional Change is Far Too Small” Dr. McCloskey continues critiquing the popular view of economists that good institutions explain the hundred-fold economic growth rate since the 18th century. For the past 2 chapters, she has argued that good institutions…