MDSB25H3 Lecture 3: MDSB25_W3_Lecture_Notes
Document Summary
Whatever the choice, one cannot review major histories [of pe] without recognizing that most build on a metanarrative that sees the discipline rooted firmly within characteristic patterns of western white male intellectual activity. (m. p. 37) Following the enlightenment tradition, classical theorists maintained that individuals were capable of using reason to maximize their self-interest and, by extension, the interests of society. The latter was reduced to an aggregation of individuals with no existence suigeneris and no teleology. Institutions were natural results of human interaction, but were to be watched with a skeptical eye because of their tendency to restrict the freedom of individual choice and social intercourse, including the free flow of ideas, commerce, and labor. Only individual freedom could maximize efficiency and therefore the wealth of nations. Critiques of classical pe: overestimation of the idea of rational self interest, logical end point can be quite cruel. Grounded in moral outrage at the inequalities of early industrial capitalism.
