Continuing on the foundational text of economics. Is Smith's position the equivalent of "greed is good?" (No.) What's the deal with the "invisible hand?" We talk about Smith's picture of the (sort of) self-regulating economy, and why he thinks we shouldn't have tariffs or guilds or other restrictions on the mobility of goods, workers, or capital. We rant a bit in ways that Continue Reading …
Episode 174: Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” (Part One)
On Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. We discuss the foundational text of modern economics, first published in 1776. How does the division of labor and our instinct to exchange lead to the growth of wealth? Is the economy sufficiently machine-like to enable us to manipulate its output, or at least to tell us how not to screw it Continue Reading …
Ep. 174: Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” (Citizen Edition)
On Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. We discuss the foundational text of modern economics, first published in 1776. How does the division of labor and our instinct to exchange lead to the growth of wealth? Is the economy sufficiently machine-like to enable us to manipulate its output, or at least to tell us how not to screw it Continue Reading …
Is Capitalism Moral? (Reactions to a Video by Walter Williams)
Our upcoming episode #174 will be on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, and we've scheduled a follow-up (#176) with Russ Roberts of EconTalk, so I again have economics on the brain, and am trying to figure out exactly what rubs me the wrong way about pro-capitalist cheerleading apart from its obvious association with some pretty despicable elements in politics, given that I agree Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 13: Solidarity
Is Jesus's moral philosophy broad in scope, such that it includes a political morality, or narrower, consisting only of private virtues? This is the question we began debating in the previous installment. There, we considered two reasons why people may advocate the "narrow" view: clinging to an image of Jesus as presented in right-wing ideology, and the false dichotomy that Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 12: Personal or Political?
Jesus’s call to common living (the sharing of all money and possessions) is read by many as a political conviction about how society should be. And while this has not been the traditional interpretation of the Christian establishment, it is a popular means of arguing that Jesus intended his moral philosophy to be applied at a socioeconomic, as well as personal, level. In the Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 11: Poverty
Some of Jesus’s teachings go beyond the virtue of nonpossessiveness and become notably specific about what to do with wealth once you have detached yourself from it: give it away to the poor (Hill, 63). But was Jesus espousing a political philosophy or merely a private morality? Was Jesus a communist? And if Jesus valued being poor, did he do so as a means to an end, or as Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 10: More Mammon
In the last installment we revisited the parable of the Dishonest Manager (Luke 16:1–13), which we looked at in part 3 in relation to Jesus’s shocking example of a man who steals his boss’s money as an image to depict "the kingdom of God." But more shocking is the character of the king in the parable of the Ten Pounds (Luke 19:11–27), who at the end of the story, apparently has Continue Reading …
Parables as a Guide to Jesus the Philosopher, Part 9: Mammon
As it’s been nine months since the last installment of this project, let's recap: Parts one to four were primarily concerned with the foundational, regulative virtue of prudence, and the last four parts continued to identify ways in which individuals can improve themselves. These were virtues of humility, nonjudgmentalism, and nonpossessiveness. We explored these three virtues Continue Reading …
Friedrich Hayek: The Road to Serfdom
I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice. –Friedrich Hayek Military strategists divide large-scale conflicts into “theaters of war.” During the Second World War, for instance, Europe was divided into Western, Eastern, North African, and Atlantic theaters. From the Continue Reading …
Rousseau, Aristotle, and Freud on Political Narcissism
Rousseau was not a cheerful fellow. According to Terry Eagleton, he'd be even less cheerful if he were alive to see what has happened to the public sphere and educational system in Europe: ... would no doubt have been appalled by the drastic shrinking of the public sphere. His greatest work, The Social Contract, speaks up for the rights of the citizenry in the teeth of private Continue Reading …