How Adam Smith Set the Stage for Economics Stripped of Ethics
awakenedeconomics.substack.com
TL;DR: We show how Adam Smith, in his classic Wealth of Nations, set aside the “moral sentiments” he had passionately defended as a philosopher. Instead of cooperation and compassion, he gave primacy to competition, division of labor, and self-interest as the arbiters of economics. In our reading, this seeded the impulse among later generations of economists, of stripping ethics out of economics.
How Adam Smith Set the Stage for Economics Stripped of Ethics
How Adam Smith Set the Stage for Economics…
How Adam Smith Set the Stage for Economics Stripped of Ethics
TL;DR: We show how Adam Smith, in his classic Wealth of Nations, set aside the “moral sentiments” he had passionately defended as a philosopher. Instead of cooperation and compassion, he gave primacy to competition, division of labor, and self-interest as the arbiters of economics. In our reading, this seeded the impulse among later generations of economists, of stripping ethics out of economics.