Rick Marriner
Tuesday
Homework 2
B. Classical Thought
B. Identifications
1. David Hume (1711-1776) Works: A Treatise of
Human Nature (1739-40), Political Discourses (1752), The Natural
History of Religion (1755), History of England (1754-62). He was
a Scottish philosopher, historian, and essayist. Hume is the most
influential thoroughgoing naturalist in modern philosophy, and a
pivotal figure of the Enlightenment. Hume advocated various forms
of moderate or mitigated skepticism. He was a relentless critic
of metaphysics and religion.
2. Adam Smith (1723-1790) Works: An Inquiry into the
Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. He was born in
Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland and was a political economist and
philosopher. In 1751 Smith was appointed professor of logic at
Glasgow university, transferring in 1752 to the chair of moral
philosophy. His studies covered the field of ethics, rhetoric,
jurisprudence and political economy.
3. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) Works:
Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) and Principles of
Political Economy. His doctrine is founded on the idea that
population grows exponentially (or geometrically) and thus faster
than the arithmetic growth of resources. In consequence humanity
is headed toward famine. He distinguished two kinds of ways of
returning to equilibrium -- destructive ways (war and famine) and
voluntary ways (decreasing the birth rate). His ideas influenced
the work of Charles Darwin on natural selection and provoked a
lively debate that continues to this day.
4. David Ricardo (1772-1823) Works: On the
Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, (1817). Plan for
the Establishment of a National Bank (1824); Proposals for an
Economical and Secure Currency; with Observations on the profits
of the Bank of England (1816) David Ricardo maintained that the
economy generally moves towards a standstill. He was a stock
broker and capitalist/landowner as well as a politician. Although
he was a bit gloomy, he was still loved by many in the government
who used his ideas to get their way!
5. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Works: On
Liberty (1859) Principles of Political Economy (1848),
Utilitarianism (1863). He was a British philosopher and
economist. He received a rigorous education under his father,
James Mill, who co-founded utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill's own
philosophy, influenced by his wife, Harriet Taylor, developed
into a more humanitarian doctrine than that of utilitarianism's
founders: he was sympathetic to socialism, and was a strong
advocate of women's rights.
6. Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) Works (amongst
others): Communist Manifesto (1848): Principles of Communism
.(1847) The son of a lawyer, he studied law and philosophy; he
rejected the idealism of Hegel but was influenced by Feuerbach
and Hess. After the Revolutions of 1848, Marx lived in London,
earning some money as a correspondent for the New York Tribune.
C. Short Essay Questions and Answers
7. The Visions of Utopian Socialists:
Question: "What effects did John Stuarts Mill’s wife
have on his work?"
Answer: John Stuart Mill’s Wife Harriet Taylor completed his
personality. She was the emotional side of his life. Having grown
up in the cold world of books and rigorous studies, she was his
eye opener to women’s rights and more generally
mankind’s rights.
8. The Inexorable System of Karl Marx
Question: "What was Engels’ effect on Karl Marx?"
Answer: Being both conceptually minded opposites and physical
opposites, Engels and Marx made quite a pair. Engels’ quick
and easy solving mind was creative enough to supply the slow and
meticulous German scholar Marx with ideas and concepts with which
to tie his theories of society together. It is said that where
Engels provided breadth Marx provided the depth.
9. The Victorian World and the Underworld of Economics
Question: "Comment on the Marshall’s theory of
time."
Answer: Alfred Marshall’s analytical mind provided an
illuminating insight into everything that he endeavored to study.
However, the reason that he is not as well known as he might have
been comes from his concept of time. Specifically, his definition
of time was one of "abstract time". A world that has a
loose "now" or "then", and can be played and
replayed as in so many of his models. His notions of equilibrium
were not tied to the progression of reality, not that what he
professed was entirely incorrect, but that history rarely moved
in such a smooth curve.
10. The Savage Society of Thorstein Veblen
Question: "What were Veblen’s views on Victorian
Economic theory?"
Answer: His views ridiculed the "flattering fictions"
that forced society to fit into neatly devised structures.
Society was not a "fleshless and bloodless framework".
These rationalizations clearly did not fit the savage creature
that he saw when he looked at mankind.
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