Search results for ""Author Carl Wennerlind""
The University of Chicago Press A Philosopher's Economist: Hume and the Rise of Capitalism
Although David Hume's contributions to philosophy are well known, his work on economics has been largely overlooked. A Philosopher's Economist offers the definitive account of Hume's "worldly philosophy," and argues that economics served as a unifying thread of his life and work. In this insightful monograph, Margaret Schabas and Carl Wennerlind show that Hume made important contributions to economic theory, for example on money, trade, and public finance. Hume's astute understanding of human behavior provided an important foundation to his economics and enabled him to follow through on the ethical and political dimensions of capitalism. He was also keen to connect his analysis with policy recommendations and sought to influence those in power. While he supported commercial modernization, because it would promote peaceful relations, foster learning, and soften religious zealotry, he was not an unqualified enthusiast. He recognized the potential of capitalism for instability and the rise of absolutism. Hume's imprint on modern economics is profound and far-reaching, both because of his influence on Adam Smith and Thomas Robert Malthus, and because of later admirers such as Friedrich Hayek and Paul Krugman. This book by Schabas and Wennerlind compels us to reconsider the centrality and legacy of Hume's economic thought--for both his time and ours--and serves as an important springboard for reflections on the philosophical underpinnings of economics.
£39.00
The University of Chicago Press A Philosopher's Economist: Hume and the Rise of Capitalism
Reconsiders the centrality and legacy of Hume’s economic thought and serves as an important springboard for reflections on the philosophical underpinnings of economics. Although David Hume’s contributions to philosophy are firmly established, his economics has been largely overlooked. A Philosopher’s Economist offers the definitive account of Hume’s “worldly philosophy” and argues that economics was a central preoccupation of his life and work. Margaret Schabas and Carl Wennerlind show that Hume made important contributions to the science of economics, notably on money, trade, and public finance. Hume’s astute understanding of human behavior provided an important foundation for his economics and proved essential to his analysis of the ethical and political dimensions of capitalism. Hume also linked his economic theory with policy recommendations and sought to influence people in power. While in favor of the modern commercial world, believing that it had and would continue to raise standards of living, promote peaceful relations, and foster moral refinement, Hume was not an unqualified enthusiast. He recognized many of the underlying injustices of capitalism, its tendencies to promote avarice and inequality, as well as its potential for political instability and absolutism. Hume’s imprint on modern economics is profound and far-reaching, whether through his close friend Adam Smith or later admirers such as John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek. Schabas and Wennerlind’s book compels us to reconsider the centrality and legacy of Hume’s economic thought—for both his time and ours—and thus serves as an important springboard for reflections on the philosophical underpinnings of economics.
£28.78
Harvard University Press Scarcity: A History from the Origins of Capitalism to the Climate Crisis
A sweeping intellectual history of the concept of economic scarcity—its development across five hundred years of European thought and its decisive role in fostering the climate crisis.Modern economics presumes a particular view of scarcity, in which human beings are innately possessed of infinite desires and society must therefore facilitate endless growth and consumption irrespective of nature’s limits. Yet as Fredrik Albritton Jonsson and Carl Wennerlind show, this vision of scarcity is historically novel and was not inevitable even in the age of capitalism. Rather, it reflects the costly triumph of infinite-growth ideologies across centuries of European economic thought—at the expense of traditions that sought to live within nature’s constraints.The dominant conception of scarcity today holds that, rather than master our desires, humans must master nature to meet those desires. Albritton Jonsson and Wennerlind argue that this idea was developed by thinkers such as Francis Bacon, Samuel Hartlib, Alfred Marshall, and Paul Samuelson, who laid the groundwork for today’s hegemonic politics of growth. Yet proponents of infinite growth have long faced resistance from agrarian radicals, romantic poets, revolutionary socialists, ecofeminists, and others. These critics—including the likes of Gerrard Winstanley, Dorothy Wordsworth, Karl Marx, and Hannah Arendt—embraced conceptions of scarcity in which our desires, rather than nature, must be mastered to achieve the social good. In so doing, they dramatically reenvisioned how humans might interact with both nature and the economy.Following these conflicts into the twenty-first century, Albritton Jonsson and Wennerlind insist that we need new, sustainable models of economic thinking to address the climate crisis. Scarcity is not only a critique of infinite growth, but also a timely invitation to imagine alternative ways of flourishing on Earth.
£26.96
