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…
Tag: Self-interest
Bourgeois Equality
Attitudes towards Bourgeois Betterment Historically Hostile
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 45 “Talk had been Hostile to Betterment” Dr. McCloskey opens this chapter with a story of a Mayan man from Guatemala, Oscar Chiquito, who had recently graduated from university despite long odds. And the long odds were due largely to his father’s hostility to…
Bourgeois Equality
Ideas Matter: Respect for the Bourgeois Led to the Great Enrichment
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 44 “The Rhetorical Change was Necessary, and May be Sufficient Dr. McCloskey is wrapping up Part VI of her book with this chapter focusing on the importance of the shift in rhetoric and playing with the concepts of necessary and sufficient. If the shift in…
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
The Relative Tolerance of Holland
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 37 “For Instance, Holland Was Tolerant, and Not for Prudence Only” In this chapter, Dr. McCloskey is wrapping up her discussion of the Dutch embrace of the bourgeois virtues by focusing on what impact it had on their relatively higher level of tolerance. To get…
Bourgeois Equality
Bourgeois Revaluation Raises, if not Praises, the Merchants
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 28 “The Bourgeois Revaluation Becomes a Commonplace, as in the London Merchant” Dr. McCloskey continues to build her argument that a respect for the bourgeoisie is building in 1700s England, which will allow the Great Enrichment to flourish a century later. She calls this change in…
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…