History of Economic Rationalities (eBook)

Jakob Bek-Thomsen is an intellectual historian working with the history of science and the history of economic thought. He obtained his PhD in 2013 from Aarhus University where he is now working as assistant professor.Christian Olaf Christiansen, Ph.D., is currently working on his second post.doc. He is specialized in the history of American economic and political thought. His first soleauthored book, Progressive Business – An Intellectual History of the Role of Business in American Society, is to be published by Oxford University Press in November 2015.Stefan Gaardsmand Jacobsen, Ph.D., also part of the ECORA research project. He has published numerous articles on the intellectual history of economics, European conceptions of China, ideas of natural order, and the French physiocrats political economy.Mikkel Thorup is Associate professor in the history of political thought, University of Aarhus, Denmark, and the author of several books including An intellectual History of Terror (2010), The Total Enemy (2014) and Pro Bono? (2015). Directs the research projects ‘Economic Rationalities’ and ‘Contested Property Claims’.

Contents 6
About the Authors 8
Chapter 1: Introduction 11
Bibliography 22
Chapter 2: From “Permutation of Commodities” to the Praise of “Doux Commerce.” Changes in Economic Rationality in Early Modern Times 23
2.1 A Mere “Permutation of Commodities” 24
2.2 Utilitarian Conversion: Economy as Part of Politics 25
2.3 The Praise of “Doux Commerce” 26
2.4 Conclusion 28
Bibliography 28
Chapter 3: “The Nutrition of a Commonwealth:” On Hobbes’s Economic Thought 30
3.1 Introduction 30
3.2 Human Nature and Methodological Individualism 32
3.3 Political Science 33
3.4 The Nutrition of a Commonwealth 35
3.5 Conclusion 38
Bibliography 38
Chapter 4: Circulation of Blood and Money in Leviathan – Hobbes on the Economy of the Body 40
4.1 Introduction: The Mint of the Body and the Heart of the State 40
4.2 The Living Body of the Leviathan 42
4.3 The Economy of the Leviathan 44
4.4 Health, Balance and Civil War 46
4.5 Conclusion 48
Bibliography 48
Chapter 5: Profits and Morals in Leon Battista Alberti’s I libri della famiglia 51
Bibliography 57
Chapter 6: The Meanings of Work in John Locke 59
6.1 Labour and Original Labour 61
6.2 The Labour of Division 64
6.3 Improved Labour 66
6.4 Conclusion 68
Bibliography 69
Chapter 7: Financial Reasoning in The Midst of Revolution and Wars: Merchants and Bankers Between Paris, London, and Amsterdam, 1789–1810 71
7.1 Economic Reasoning and Political Constraints: Thomas Coutts and Francis Baring During French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1801) 71
7.2 Hottinguer and His Dutch Clients: The Forced Diversification of Investment (1801–1807) 76
7.3 Conclusions 77
Bibliography 78
Chapter 8: Prose Genre and the Emergence of Modern Economic Reasoning in Eighteenth-Century Britain 80
8.1 Introduction 80
8.2 Transitioning to Early Modern Conceptions of Science and Language 81
8.3 Transitioning to New Concepts of Prose Discourse 82
8.4 The Proper Genre for Economic Writings – Representational Choices and Analytic Modes 83
8.5 The Link Between Prose Genres and Authoritative Reasoning 85
8.6 Conclusion 86
Bibliography 87
Chapter 9: Political Economy and Its Public Contenders 1820–1850 88
9.1 Introduction 88
9.2 The Struggle to Establish a Political Science 89
9.3 British Critique 91
9.4 French Critique 94
9.5 Rationalities, Interests and Competing Sciences 97
9.6 Concluding Remarks 98
Bibliography 98
Chapter 10: The Promissory Self – Credit and Debt Rationalities in the Work and Life of Karl Marx 101
10.1 A “Good” Man 102
10.2 Letter to a Friend 105
10.3 The Measure of Self 107
Bibliography 108
Chapter 11: Democratic Governance: A Genealogy 109
Bibliography 117
Chapter 12: The Economic De-Legitimization and Legitimization of Arts Policies 1970–1985 118
12.1 Introduction 118
12.2 Evaluating the Arts Council 119
12.3 Preferences and Political Values 121
12.4 Consumer Sovereignty and Merit Goods 122
12.5 Conclusion 124
Bibliography 125
Chapter 13: From “Health for All” to “Health as Investment:” The Role of Economic Rationalities in the Transition from International to Global Health 1978–2013 126
13.1 Introduction 126
13.2 From “Health for All” to “Health as Investment” 127
13.3 World Health and the World Bank 129
13.4 The DALY Metric 130
13.4.1 Age Weighting 131
13.4.2 Discounting 131
13.4.3 Health as Human Capital 132
13.5 NDCs on the Global Health Agenda 133
13.6 Conclusion 134
Bibliography 135
Chapter 14: The Economic Rationality of “Doing Good to Do Well” and Three Critiques, 1990 to the Present 137
14.1 The Rise of Civic Capitalism – Doing Well by Doing Good 137
14.2 Why Civic Capitalism? 139
14.3 Critiquing Civic Capitalism (1): On the Gap Between Rhetoric and Practice 140
14.4 Critiquing Civic Capitalism (2): Ethical Shortcomings 141
14.5 Critiquing Civic Capitalism (3): Democratic Shortcomings 142
14.6 Conclusion 143
Bibliography 143