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Origins of virtue - Chapters 2 and 10

2. Division of labor

  • Hutterites example: community that actually cares for each other. Ridley says that our society is not like that, we tend to favor relatives over everyone else.

    • Selfishness is almost the definition of vice

    • We are all huterites at heart, we all share a belief in pursuing the greater good.

      • We praise selflessness.

  • Humans are dependent on each other.

  • It is specialization that makes human society greater than the sum of its parts.

Groupishness

  • If a creature puts the greater good ahead of its individual interests, it is because its fate is inextricably tied to that of the group: it shares the group's fate.

  • Human beings cooperate at a level other than the family.

    • This makes benevolence harder to explain.

    • Nepotism is seen as a bad thing. Favoring relatives is seen as corruption.

The parable of the pin-maker

  • The advantages of society are those provided by the division of labor.

    • Because each person is a specialist of some sort, the sums of all our efforts are greater than they would be if each of us had to be a jack of all trades.

    • An example of this is the human body, each organ, each cell, plays a separate part in the functioning of the body.

  • Adam Smith was the first to recognize that the division of labor is what makes human society more than the sum of its parts.

  • The reasons for this advantage lay in three consequences:

    • Improving dexterity at one activity through practice

    • Save time that would otherwise be spent switching from task to task

    • It pays off to invent machinery that speeds up the task

  • He also said that the division of labor increased with:

    • The size of the market

    • With the improvement in transport and communication

  • By specializing at the level of the individual, the species can generalize at the level of the colony

  • Smith made the paradoxical argument that social benefits derive from individual vices

    • Self ambition leads to industry, resentment discourages aggression, vanity causes acts of kindness

    • "It is not from the benevolece of the butcher that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest"

    • This also does not mean that the butcher is malevolent

  • It allows for trade

    • The customer gets tbe product cheaper

    • The producer makes enough to exchange for all the other goods he needs

    • It is not a zero-sum game

  • Between strangers, the invisible hand of the market, distributing selfish ambitions, is fairer

The technological stone age

  • Economists conclude that this specialization is modern invention.

  • Ridley disagrees

    • It is hard to imagine any group of grown men working together as a team for a fairly long period of time without some similar sort of specializations emerging.

  • Husband and wife have divided chores

10. Gains from trade

  • Example: Yir Yoront

    • Australian tribe that had a sophisticated system of trade

  • Trade is the beneficient side of human groupishness

    • We segregate into territorial groups, which allows for trade

  • The glue of alliances is trade

  • Example: Yanomano villages

    • Each village could supply its own wants, but they choose not to to keep trade open

    • When they fell out with their allies, they quickly remembered the skill to produce their own stuff

The merchant law

  • Trade predeced law

  • Modern commercial law was invented and enforced not by governments, but by merchants themselves

  • As markets grew, merchants wanted to exploit the law of comparative advantage between countries

    • But commercing in a foreign country meant that the rules were different and they had no assurance that theywouldn't be cheated

    • So merchants got together to form a universal set of rules of the game

    • It was voluntarily places and voluntarily enforced

  • Good customs that worked drove out bad by natural selection and so the law evolved

  • Then middlemen and bankers emerged

  • Finally, the government enacted into national law these merchant customs, and took the credit for it

Silver and gold

  • Arabs and Crusades changed the value of silver and gold in their regions

V❀

Origins of virtue - Chapters 2 and 10

2. Division of labor

  • Hutterites example: community that actually cares for each other. Ridley says that our society is not like that, we tend to favor relatives over everyone else.

    • Selfishness is almost the definition of vice

    • We are all huterites at heart, we all share a belief in pursuing the greater good.

      • We praise selflessness.

  • Humans are dependent on each other.

  • It is specialization that makes human society greater than the sum of its parts.

Groupishness

  • If a creature puts the greater good ahead of its individual interests, it is because its fate is inextricably tied to that of the group: it shares the group's fate.

  • Human beings cooperate at a level other than the family.

    • This makes benevolence harder to explain.

    • Nepotism is seen as a bad thing. Favoring relatives is seen as corruption.

The parable of the pin-maker

  • The advantages of society are those provided by the division of labor.

    • Because each person is a specialist of some sort, the sums of all our efforts are greater than they would be if each of us had to be a jack of all trades.

    • An example of this is the human body, each organ, each cell, plays a separate part in the functioning of the body.

  • Adam Smith was the first to recognize that the division of labor is what makes human society more than the sum of its parts.

  • The reasons for this advantage lay in three consequences:

    • Improving dexterity at one activity through practice

    • Save time that would otherwise be spent switching from task to task

    • It pays off to invent machinery that speeds up the task

  • He also said that the division of labor increased with:

    • The size of the market

    • With the improvement in transport and communication

  • By specializing at the level of the individual, the species can generalize at the level of the colony

  • Smith made the paradoxical argument that social benefits derive from individual vices

    • Self ambition leads to industry, resentment discourages aggression, vanity causes acts of kindness

    • "It is not from the benevolece of the butcher that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest"

    • This also does not mean that the butcher is malevolent

  • It allows for trade

    • The customer gets tbe product cheaper

    • The producer makes enough to exchange for all the other goods he needs

    • It is not a zero-sum game

  • Between strangers, the invisible hand of the market, distributing selfish ambitions, is fairer

The technological stone age

  • Economists conclude that this specialization is modern invention.

  • Ridley disagrees

    • It is hard to imagine any group of grown men working together as a team for a fairly long period of time without some similar sort of specializations emerging.

  • Husband and wife have divided chores

10. Gains from trade

  • Example: Yir Yoront

    • Australian tribe that had a sophisticated system of trade

  • Trade is the beneficient side of human groupishness

    • We segregate into territorial groups, which allows for trade

  • The glue of alliances is trade

  • Example: Yanomano villages

    • Each village could supply its own wants, but they choose not to to keep trade open

    • When they fell out with their allies, they quickly remembered the skill to produce their own stuff

The merchant law

  • Trade predeced law

  • Modern commercial law was invented and enforced not by governments, but by merchants themselves

  • As markets grew, merchants wanted to exploit the law of comparative advantage between countries

    • But commercing in a foreign country meant that the rules were different and they had no assurance that theywouldn't be cheated

    • So merchants got together to form a universal set of rules of the game

    • It was voluntarily places and voluntarily enforced

  • Good customs that worked drove out bad by natural selection and so the law evolved

  • Then middlemen and bankers emerged

  • Finally, the government enacted into national law these merchant customs, and took the credit for it

Silver and gold

  • Arabs and Crusades changed the value of silver and gold in their regions

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