JUST SOCIETY AND MARKET
I. Three Perspectives of the Market
A. Good (Friends)
1. Liberal Tradition
a) liberty, social freedom, exercise of rights
b) emphasis on the individual
c) a means to achieve eudaimonia is exchange with consent
B. Bad (Foes)
1. Socialist Tradition
a) no private property
C. Both (Ambivalent)
1. Communitarian Tradition
a) all individuals are socially embedded beings
b) the individual is only a part of society
II. Origin of the Market
A. Pursuit of Eudaimonia - meaning happiness or flourishing
THE LIBERAL TRADITION
III. Adam Smith (1723 - 1790)
A. Deism
1. God does not intervene
2. Natural system
B. Works
1. Theory of Moral Sentiments
a) main points
(1) sympathy - feel with
(2) empathy - be in the shoes of the other hand
b) there is a natural feeling to feel what others feel
c) ability to connect with others - to care leads to beneficence
d) having feelings is not enough - there is a need for
reason/judgment
e) it leads to being an impartial spectator - promoting justice - which
leads to desert (something deserved or not)
f) the pursuit of justice and beneficence are natural feelings
g) it is pursuing self-interest
h) it incidentally strives for common good
i) “doctrine of unintended consequences”
j) which is natural - providential plan
k) referred to as the cunning of nature
l) the invisible hand - that in the pursuit of individual interest, the
interest of the whole society is achieved
2. The Wealth of Nations
a) all humans have natural tendencies to “truck, trade, and barter”
