Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 2 “The Sage of Kirkcaldy” In the first part of my discussion of this chapter, we looked at what Peter Foster told us about Adam Smith’s life and the developoment of his ideas that we know today…
Tag: Adam Smith
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Adam Smith Would Be Surprised to Learn People Think He Supports Greed
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 2 “The Sage of Kirkcaldy” In this chapter, Peter Foster follows Adam Smith through the years as he developed his ideas that were enshrined in his two books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759 and The Wealth of Nations in…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Why is Our Culture Hostile to Capitalism?
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 1 “Cardboard Cut-out Capitalism” The title of journalist Peter Foster’s book definitely captured my attention: Why We Bite the Invisible Hand. The invisible hand is a metaphor from Adam Smith that we use in economics to describe how the economy…
1913
Entrepreneurship as a Solution
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 8 “Solution: #1 Entrepreneurship” DeMille notes the entrepreneurial spirit is a part of the American culture, but it can be threatened by an ever-growing federal government. He says the founders were considering what type of national character the new country was going to…
Bourgeois Equality
We Need to Bring Back Virtue Not Give Up on Economics
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 67 “A Change in Rhetoric Made Modernity, and Can Spread It” This is an historic blog — 67 chapters over nearly 18 months, and now we are at the final chapter of Dr. McCloskey’s Bourgeois Equality! I was drawn to do a chapter by chapter review of…
Bourgeois Equality
Good Ideas Put the Bourgeois in Charge
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 43 “Ideas Made for a Bourgeois Revaluation” Dr. McCloskey is continuing her exploration for the factors that caused the Great Enrichment to occur when and where it did, nineteenth century England. She has been focusing on many economic and cultural factors so far, but…
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…