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Economics and the Pursuit of Happiness

5 Parts, 15 Lessons, 51 Videos   3H 30M
Parts
  • Introduction
  • Political Economy and Public Choice
    • Lesson 1: Political Implications of Economic Systems
    • Lesson 2: The Public Choice Perspective
    • Lesson 3: Bureaucracy and the Commercial Order
  • Moral Dimensions of Property and Trade
    • Lesson 4: Justice in Exchange
    • Lesson 5: Social Aspects of Justice and Commerce
    • Lesson 6: Property, Production, and Distribution
  • The Contest of Ideas: Keynes and Hayek
    • Lesson 7: John Maynard Keynes: Radical Conservative
    • Lesson 8: Hayek: Conserving Freedom
    • Lesson 9: Keynesianism and the Limits of Economics
  • The Contest of Ideas: Free to Choose?
    • Lesson 10: Freedom of Choice
    • Lesson 11: Hayek: Libertarian Paternalism
    • Lesson 12: On the Nature of Liberty
  • The Moral Dimensions of the Market Economy
    • Lesson 13: Moral Norms
    • Lesson 14: Justifying Income, Wealth, and Capitalism
    • Lesson 15: Market Freedom, Efficiency, and Tradition

Lesson 13 Lesson 13: Moral Norms

Presented by: Dr. Jay Richards
Busch School of Business and Economics at the Catholic University of America

Playlist

  1. Lesson 13, Video 1 - Dr. Jay Richards
  2. Lesson 13, Video 2 - Dr. Jay Richards
  3. Lesson 13, Video 3 - Dr. Jay Richards

Markets and Morality

In this lesson, students will study three thinkers idea on moral norms as diverse in time as Adam Smith, Wilhelm Röpke, and Paul Heyne. As a result, they will be able to articulate an important Enlightenment theory of morals that depends neither on natural law nor Divine Revelation. They will show how we have come to a point in history and culture that has been aptly called a “dictatorship of relativism.” And they will know the oft-neglected difference between collectivist critiques of markets and economic liberty and critiques of material consumerism, to which collectivist societies are as much as or more prone than commercial societies.

Key Concepts: (1) Invisible Hand, (2) Mutual Sympathy of Sentiments, (3) Mass Society, (4) Commercial Society,

Lesson 13 Quick Quiz

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EPH Lesson 13: Moral Norms

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“It is an invisible hand because the agents in question do not intend to create a shared system of morality – they intend only to achieve mutual sympathy here, now, with this person. In so doing, however, they (unintentionally) establish the precedents and behavioral habits that will generate, constitute, and maintain a shared system of expectations and sentiments.”

James R. Otteson

“Mere justice is, upon most occasions, but a negative virtue, and only hinders us from hurting our neighbor.”

Adam Smith

“Even the optimists cannot overlook the fact that dissatisfaction and discontent seem only to grow with the profusion of goods designed for creature comforts and in inverse proportion to the happiness expected of those goods. But they are unable to understand the profound causes of this apparent paradox.”

Wilhelm Röpke

“I suggest that many of our students, including some of our most thoughtful ones, are reluctant to let themselves be captured by the economic way of thinking because they see economic theory as at bottom an elaborate justification for an immoral society.”

Paul Heyne

“The fundamental error lies in supposing that the reason the Golden Rule won't work is that human beings are basically selfish. I submit that the Golden Rule won't work as an organizing principle for a commercial society because human beings are not omniscient.”

Paul Heyne

Learn More

h PDF

James R. Otteson, “Adam Smith on Virtue, Prosperity, and Justice,” In J.A. Baker & M.D. White, eds., Economics and the Virtues: Building a New Moral Foundation, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 72-93.

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h PDF

Wilhelm Röpke, “Boredom and the Mass Society,” The Humane Economy (Wilmington, DE, 2014), pp. 74-89.

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h Link

Paul Heyne, “Moral Misunderstanding and the Justification of Markets,” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, December 1, 1998.

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h Video

“Can Markets Corrupt Social Values?” with Richard Posner and Michael Sandel (from the University of Chicago and Harvard University & the Institute for New Economic Thinking)

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h Video

“Is Capitalism a Caring Society?” with Samuel Gregg and Robert Whaples

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