Dear Michael, I thank you very much for the thoughts and references below. They are very useful indeed.
Yours, Doğan 2009/10/30 Michael Perelman <[email protected]> > I am not sure this will be useful, but I hope so: > > Sohn-Rethel, Alfred. 1978. Intellectual and Manual Labour: A Critique of > Epistemology (London: Macmillan). > 35: Both Kant and Smith set out "to prove the perfect normalcy of > bourgeois society." > Smith concluded that the desire for luxury is little more than a "deception > which rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind" (Smith > 1759, IV.i.9, p. 183). Smith's contemporary, the philosopher, Immanuel > Kant, told a young Russian nobleman, "Give a man everything he desires and > yet at this very moment he will feel that this everything is not > everything " (Karamzin 1957, pp. 40-41). > The following is very Smith-like. > Kant, Immanuel, 1970. "An Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan > Purpose." in Kant's Political Writings, ed. H.S. Reiss (Cambridge: > Cambridge University Press): pp. 41-53. > 44-5: "The means which nature employs to bring about the development of > innate capacities is that of antagonism within society, in so far as this > antagonism becomes in the long run the cause of a law-governed social > order. By antagonism, I mean in this context the unsocial sociability of > men, that is, their tendency to come together in society, coupled, however, > with a continual resistance which constantly threatens to break this > society up. This propensity is obviously rooted in human nature. Man has > an inclination to live in society, since he feels in this state more like a > man, that is, he feels able to develop his natural capacities. But he also > has a great tendency to live as an individual, to isolate himself, since he > also encounters in himself the unsocial characteristic of wanting to direct > everything in accordance with his own ideas. He therefore expects > resistance all around, just as he knows of himself that he is in turn > inclined to offer resistance to others. It is this very resistance which > awakens all man's powers and induces him to overcome his tendency to > laziness. Through the desire for honour, power or property, it drives him > to seek status among his fellows, whom he cannot bear yet cannot bear to > leave. Then the first true steps are taken from barbarism to culture, > which in fact consists in the social worthiness of man. All man's talents > are now gradually developed, his taste cultivated, and by a continued > process of enlightenment, a beginning is made towards establishing a way of > thinking which can with time transform the primitive natural capacity for > moral discrimination into definite practical principles; and thus a > pathologically enforced social union is transformed into a moral whole. > Without these asocial qualities (far from admirable in themselves) which > cause the resistance inevitably encountered by each individual as he > furthers his self-seeking pretensions, man would live an Arcadian, pastoral > existence of perfect concord, self-sufficiency and mutual love. But all > human talents would remain hidden for ever in a dormant state, and men, as > good-natured as the sheep they tended, would scarcely render their > existence more valuable that of their animals. The end for which they were > created, their rational nature, would be an unfilled void. Nature should > thus be thanked for fostering social incompatibility, enviously competitive > vanity, and insatiable desires for possession or even power. Without these > desires, all man's excellent natural capacities would never be roused to > develop. Man wishes concord, but nature, knowing better what is good for > his species, wishes discord. man wishes to live comfortably and > pleasantly, but nature intends that he should abandon idleness and inactive > self-sufficiency and plunge instead into labour an hardships, so that he > may by his own adroitness find means of liberating himself from them in > turn. The natural impulses which make this possible, the sources of the > very unsociableness and continual resistance which cause so many evils, at > the same time encourage man towards new exertions of his powers and thus > towards further development of his natural capacities. They would thus > seem to indicate the design of a wise creator -- not, as it might seem, the > hand of a malicious spirit who had meddled in the creator's glorious work > or spoiled it out of envy." > Less direct evidence: > Lehmbruch, Gerhard. 2001. "The Institutional Embedding of Market Economies: > The German "Model" and Its Impact on Japan." in Wolfgang Streeck and Kozo > Yamamura, eds. The Origins of Nonliberal Capitalism: Germany and Japan in > Comparison (Ithaca: Cornell University Press): pp. 39-93. > 48: "The influence of Adam Smith's writings had progressively superseded > the tradition of cameralism and mercantilism in the formation of Prussian > civil servants (Hasek 1925, 117-21 ). Some of the lost influential among > them had been trained as students of Christian Jacob Kraus, Kant's disciple > and successor at the University of Konigsberg. Kraus was an ardent > Smithian and taught his audience that "since the times of the New Testament > no literary work has exercised a more beneficial influence than The Wealth > of Nations" (Treue 1951). The bureaucratic promoters of the Prussian > reform since 1808 -- led by Karl August Baron von Hardenberg (1750-1822), > who from 1810 was the kingdom's prime minister -- were devoted believers in > Smith's ideas (Vogel 1983a)." > > > > > -- > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Chico, CA 95929 > > Tel. 530-898-5321 > E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu > michaelperelman.wordpress.com > > ________________________________________________ > YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > Send list submissions to: [email protected] > Set your options at: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/dgn.gcmn%40googlemail.com > -- Dogan Göcmen (http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/) Author of The Adam Smith Problem: Reconciling Human Nature and Society in The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris, London&New York 2007 ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
