This volume provides an integrated and wide-ranging set of primary-source readings on the relationship between moral values and economic activity, as articulated by some of the leading figures in Western civilization. From the ancient Greeks to the present, Economic Morality: Ancient to Modern Readings offers substantial coverage to each major period of history: classical Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the modern era. Everything from Aristotle to Adam Smith, from Marx to Hayek, and from Proudhon to Nozick has been brought together in one comprehensive survey. The perspectives represented in our volume include those of Christians and Muslims; Protestants, Catholics, and Jews; believers and non-believers; capitalists and socialists; conservatives and libertarians. They emphasize both law and mores, as well as history, philosophy, religion, and economics. This is a genuinely interdisciplinary volume, and one that invites a catholic and humanistic conversation. In preparing this collection, the contributors aim to recover something of the range of moral opinion that first accompanied the rise of "economics" in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. The loss of that range of opinion has left a troubling void in our academic and public discourse. Those who broadly embrace the modern economic project tend to view it pragmatically but not morally, while those who are more critical of it often end up in a moral monologue that is unsatisfying to all sides. By showing the optimistic pragmatists the rich tradition of moral criticism and the pessimistic critics the equally rich tradition of (qualified) moral approbation, this volume seeks to facilitate conversation and bring much-needed mutual comprehension to a perennial debate.
Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0000 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0000 PART ONE: Greeks and Romans 1.1 Plato, Republic, Bk. II.369-374, VIII.550-556 1.2 Plato, Laws, Bk. V.742-745, XI.913-920 1.3 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I.4-5, 9-10, V.5 1.4 Aristotle, Politics, I.8-11 1.5 Cicero, De Officiis (On Duties), I.14, III.15-17 1.6 Ovid, "The Myth of King Midas" in Metamorphoses, Bk. XI.81-145 1.7 Plutarch "Of the Love of Wealth," in Moralia 1.8 Plutarch, "Life of Lycurgus," in Parallel Lives, 9-11 PART TWO: Religious Traditions 2.1 The Bible The Old Testament: Deuteronomy 15:1-11, 23:19-20, Proverbs 11:28, 13:11 The Apocrypha: Sirach 26:29-30, 31:1-11, 38:24-34 The New Testament: Matthew 6:19-33, 19:16-20:16, 22:16-22, 25:13-30, John 2:13-16, Acts 2:42-47, ,4:31-35, I Timothy 6:9-10, II Thessalonians 3:7-10 2.2 Benedict of Nursia, ch. 48, "Of Daily Manual Labor," in The Rule of St. Benedict 2.3 Qur'an: Surah 2:261-281, Surah 4:29-40, Surah 9:34-35, Surah 102:1-8 2.4 Hugh of St. Victor, Didascalicon, Bk. 2, chs. 20 ("Mechanical Arts") and 23 ("Commerce") 2.5 Francis of Assisi, "Instances Against Money" in The Lives of St. Francis of Assisi by Thomas of Celano XXXV.65-XXXVIII.68 2.6 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae Q. 66 Art. 1-2, Q. 77 Art. 1-4 2.7 Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, ch. 5, 1-2, 5-6, 8-9, 14 PART THREE: Renaissance and Reformation 3.1 Benedetto Cotrugli, Treatise on Merchandise, bk. 3 3.2 Thomas More, Utopia, final pages 3.3 Martin Luther, "On Trading and Usury" PART FOUR: The Seventeenth Century 4.1 Hugo Grotius-The Rights of War and Peace, I: v-xi 4.2 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 13 4.3 Pieter De la Court, Political Maxims of the State of Holland, chs. 1, 14-15 4.4 John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government, ch. 5, "Of Property" PART FIVE: The Eighteenth Century 5.1 Bernard Mandeville, "The Grumbling Hive," in Fable of the Bees 5.2 Voltaire, "Presbyterianism" and "Commerce" in Philosophical Letters 5.3 Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, XX.1-2 5.4 David Hume, "Of Commerce," in Political Discourses 5.5 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality Among Men, pt. 2 5.6 Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, V.2.7-16 5.7 Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, I.ii PART SIX: The Nineteenth Century 6.1 Benjamin Constant, "On Ancient and Modern Liberty Compared" 6.2 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 2, bk. 2, pt. 2, chs. 2, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14 6.3 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property?, selections 6.4 Karl Marx, "Alienated (or `Estranged') Labor" in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 6.5 Frederic Bastiat, The Law, selections 6.6 Henry Thoreau, "Economy" in Walden 6.7 Samuel Smiles, Self Help ch. 1, paras. 1-9 6.8 William Graham Sumner, "What Social Classes Owe Each Other" 6.9 Andrew Carnegie, "The Gospel of Wealth" 6.10 Pope Leo XIII, "Rerum Novarum," paras. 1-15, 19-20 34-38 PART SEVEN: The Twentieth Century 7.1 Georg Simmel, "Individual Freedom" in The Philosophy of Money, ch. 4 7.2 Max Weber, "The Spirit of Capitalism" in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 7.3 Marcel Mauss, "Moral Conclusions" in The Gift 7.4 John Maynard Keynes, "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" 7.5 Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism: The Classical Tradition, ch. 1 7.6 Ayn Rand, "The Meaning of Money" in Atlas Shrugged, pt. II, ch. 2 7.7 Friedrich von Hayek, "The Moral Element in Free Enterprise" 7.8 Milton Friedman, "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits," New York Times Magazine, Sept. 13, 1970 7.9 John Rawls, "The Concept of Justice in Political Economy," in A Theory of Justice, ch. 5, 41 7.10 Robert Nozick, "Distributive Justice," in Anarchy, State, and Utopia, pt. II, ch. 7 7.11 Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, pt. 1, ch. 1. 7.12 Irving Kristol, "When Virtue Loses All Her Loveliness," in Two Cheers for Capitalism Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0000
