The Invisible Hand and the Common Good

ISBN-13: 9783642061097 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 465 str.

Bernard Hodgson

Opis

The basic moral significance of neo-classical economics and the competitive market system it represents is founded on the classical liberal tradition in which the "simple system of natural liberty" is claimed to give expression to the harmony of each with all. Though such a common good would not be the outcome of the intentions of individual agents or state planning, nevertheless, the impersonal forces of a capitalist market would so allocate resources as to lead the self-interested participants in such an economy, as if by an "invisible hand," to a coherent social order of mutual advantage. The papers in this volume critically examine central aspects of the preceding social ethos underlying contemporary political economy and our increasingly globalized market culture. The inquiry is undertaken from a variety of disciplinary perspectives at the intersection of philosophy, economics, political science, sociology, psychology, and computer science.

Spis treści

One Setting the Problem.- 1 Public Interest and Self-Interest in the Market and the Democratic Process.- 2 The Invisible Hand and Thinness of the Common Good.- Two Constraining the Invisible Hand.- 3 Hiring Invisible Hands for Public Works.- 4 A Market Failures Approach to Business Ethics.- 5 Abstractions and Conceptual Automata in Economics and Non-Economics.- Three Moral Rights and Market Society.- 6 The Inherent Rights of For-Profit Corporations.- 7 Degrees of Property.- Four The Tyranny of the Invisible Hand.- 8 Understanding Market Theology.- 9 General Equilibrium Theory as Normative Ideal Social Order.- Five Economic Theory and Normative Realism.- 10 The Efficiency of the Non-profit Enterprise: Constitutional Ideology, Conformist Preferences and Reputation.- 11 Transformational Economics and the Public Good.- 12 On Economic Men Bearing Gifts and Playing Fair.- Six Free Hands and Moral Communities.- 13 The Person, the Market, and the Community.- 14 Social Trust and Modern Economies: The Example of Shopping.- 15 A Reconciliation of the Liberal and Communitarian Debate in the Light of the Methodenstreit.- 16 Voluntary Simplicity: Characterization, Select Psychological Implications, and Societal Consequences.- Seven The Global Reach of the Invisible Hand.- 17 Russia’s Experiment with the “Invisible Hand”.- 18 Fostering the Common Good in Developing Countries: The Respective Responsibilities of States and International Businesses — Preliminary Notes Towards a Political Ethic for International Businesses.- 19 Globalization and the Re-Definition of Democratic Governance: From Compensatory to Protective Democracy.- List of Authors.- Index of Names.