FINA 4050 Netter Capitalism Test 2

What are the 4 factors that led to a smashing of old order in parts of Europe?

1. Emergence of national political units in Europe

2. Decay of religious spirits under skeptical inquiring humanistic views

3. Growth technology

4. Rise of scientific curiosity

How did the view of progress change during the enlightenment?

People started to believe that they could learn and there could be progress and along came the idea that we have the ability to improve life

Why did the concepts of usury become less frowned upon during the enlightenment?

A financial system to be able to move purchasing power from one period to the another was important to the developmental views of the enlightenment

What are Francis Bacons important ideas?

- He is considered the father of experimental philosophy

- "Knowledge is power": what makes knowledge useful is whether or not it empowers us, not simply knowing things AKA utility is important

What are Isaac Newtons important ideas?

- Emphasized empiricism

- Tested theories using math

"If I have seen farther it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants"

Isaac Newton

Empiricism is the theory that__________

The origin of all knowledge is sense experience

What are Thomas Hobbes important ideas?

- Rejects Dualism (Beef with Descartes)

- Humanist: believed in individual liberty

- Emphasized worldly happiness over religious for individuals and government role (covetousness - avarice and desire for riches)

- People should worry about the here and now, not afterlife

- Individuals have legal and moral responsibility to follow the law

- Criticized Christian and Civic traditions: Rights of individuals matter to Hobbes

- Believed in the social contract which should be basis for all political communities (doesn't change over time)

"And in that state of nature, no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

Thomas Hobbes

"The soul is mortal"

Thomas Hobbes

"They trade a measure of independence for security. The state must exist or man would succumb to his natural desire for conflict."

Thomas Hobbes

What are John Locke's important ideas?

- Considered father of liberalism

- Religious liberty

- Lays out how government should be set up (used in constitution)

- Against divine right of kings

- Social Contract can change over time (major difference from Hobbes)

- Separation of church and state

- Believed in private property and the right to send possessions, especially from government

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"All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions"

John Locke

"The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created being capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom"

John Locke

What are the two main points of the Enlightenment?

1. Believed in human knowledge and reason defying the traditions and pre-established thoughts of the past. Have to have reason to understand things

2. Search for practical useful knowledge to control nature is what is important

What are Voltaire's important ideas?

- Worked to develop French philosophy based on empiricism

- Religious tolerance

- Markets were a great force for social peace

- Lived for himself (living for ones own pleasure)

Who were the philosophes?

French Enlightenment thinkers (includes Voltaire and Rosseau)

- Unwavering doubt in perfectibility of humans

- Desire to dispel erroneous systems of though (religion)

- Dedication to systemize the various intellectual disciplines

- Very anti-war

"I do not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it"

Voltaire

"The comfort of the rich depends upon the abundant supply of the poor"

Voltaire

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore, all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets"

Voltaire

What are Rousseau's important ideas?

- Man is a creature of nature and self-sufficient. Absolute freedom is what makes us human

- Man is born free but is everywhere in chains (we depend too much on other people)

- Society is corrupt, not humans

- Pure democracy is the best

- Major opponent of commercial society

- Didn't like private property

"no man has any natural authority over his fellow man"

Rousseau

What are Jeremy Bentham's important ideas?

- Utilitarianism: greatest happiness of greatest number is the right choice

- Interested in what the proper rules government should set

What are David Hume's important ideas?

Influence on Adam Smith

- Empiricism: Related to Hume being a skeptic (what we know we get from our senses)

- Self interest is important motivator for society

- Market as social contract (control human passions so all might share)

- Economic freedom is needed for political freedom

What are Adam Smith's important ideas?

- Wrote on importance of self-interest

- Wanted free markets without government interference

- Thought role of govt. was to make peace, administer justice, easy taxes, and provide education

- Don't restrict trade (competition is crucial)

- Both parties of a trade can benefit (universal opulence / invisible hand)

- Commercial society makes people more moral

- Anti-mercantilism but pro trade (economic opponent to East India Company)

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest"

Adam Smith

What are Moser's important ideas?

- Defended traditional, hierarchical society where people knew their place

- New cheaper goods were destroying traditional and local cultures/economies

-

What are Edmund Burkes important ideas?

- Founder of the whig party

- Go with what is right, not what people like

- Study to influence things, not just to study stuff

- Pro-market with no government (best allocation of materials)

- Distrust of abstract thought (Rousseau was pro-abstract thought)

- Criticized social contract (govt developed over time instead)

- People are social animals (critic of liberal individualism)

- Argued against English taxation of America in parliament

- Moral opponent to East India Company

- Thought those who portray humans in terms of profits were destroying cultures

- Against the English Civil War but pro-Glorious Revolution

- Thought intellectual's attack on the church was dangerous to culture (need long-standing institutions)

- Anti-Slavery

"Young healthy child well-nursed is at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food..."

Burke

This is satire

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one"

Thomas Paine

What are Hegel's important ideas?

- Positive view of market, but a major role for the state and institutions in making it work

- Reconcile people to the legitimacy and desirability of modern institutions

- Training civil servants who act for society is important (similar to Smith)

- Role of the state is to make individuality and capitalism possible (provide us with a sense of belonging)

- The Geist (spirit of an individual or group) because of alienation and the pattern in dialectical

- Important to understand what comes from history, not what caused it

What does Teleological mean?

Relating to explaining things by the purpose they serve rather than the cause by which they arise

Hegel's view of history

"When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated"

Hegel

What are Marx's important ideas?

- The ruling class (bourgeoisie) controls the man of production and the working class (proletariat)

- Capitalism didn't work (didn't like classes)

- Anti-competition

- Only solution was a revolution

- Wanted govt. to control finances

- Value only comes from laborers, not managers/entrepreneurs/financiers

What are Engels' important ideas?

- Supporter of Marx

- private property was the root of all evils (he was still a capitalist)

-

Left vs right Hegelians

Right: Hegel set up perfect government

Left: Still struggle in Prussia, not perfect (Marx)

"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

Communist manifesto - Marx

According to Marx, what are the two reasons capitalism would fail?

1. The more wealth, the more miserable the working class (more capital leads to less profit which leads to more exploitation of the poor to get more profit)

2. The more wealth, the more extensive and destructive the financial and commercial crisis would become

Who is Eleanor Marx?

A professional revolutionary that added women to the communist revolution movement

What are Lenin's important ideas?

- Capitalism caused imperialism which caused WWI

- Capitalism is unstable because of different developing rates of countries

- Wanted revolution with revolutionary consciousness led by professional revolutionaries

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth"

Lenin

What are Trotsky's important ideas?

- Ruled with Lenin

- Concerned with (1) origins of war and its connection to capitalism and (2) the development of a strategy for the international working class in the face of betrayal of leaders

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" A revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, not every revolutionary situation leads to a revolution"

Lenin

"Fascism is capitalism in decay"

Lenin

What are Marshall's important ideas?

- Created S and P

- Competition ensures efficiency in a market

- With competition, productivity increases (Marx said exploitation would increase)

- Pro-business men

- Added concept of change to economics and markets

What are Schumpeter's important ideas?

- Creative destruction: New products replace old ones

- Marshall's S&P was based on physics but Schumpeter's was based on biology

- It was not resources that drove development but innovation and entrepreneurs

- Capitalism actually dynamically transforms supply and demand

- Pro-entrepreneur

- Capitalism faced a grave crisis because of public perception

- Thought Socialism could work but inferior to capitalism

"Early in life I had three ambitions. I wanted to be the greatest economist in the world, the greatest horseman in Austria, and the best lover in Vienna."

Schumpeter

"Economic progress, in a capitalist society, means turmoil."

Schumpeter

"Capitalism inevitably and by virtue of the very logic of its civilizationcreates, educates, and subsidizes a vested interest in social unrest."

Schumpeter