The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph / Edition 2

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More About This Textbook

Overview

In this volume, Albert Hirschman reconstructs the intellectual climate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to illuminate the intricate ideological transformation that occurred, wherein the pursuit of material interests —so long condemned as the deadly sin of avarice —was assigned the role of containing the unruly and destructive passions of man. Hirschman here offers a new interpretation for the rise of capitalism, one that emphasizes the continuities between old and new, in contrast to the assumption of a sharp break that is a common feature of both Marxian and Weberian thinking. Among the insights presented here is the ironical finding that capitalism was originally supposed to accomplish exactly what was soon denounced as its worst feature: the repression of the passions in favor of the "harmless," if one-dimensional, interests of commercial life. To portray this lengthy ideological change as an endogenous process, Hirschman draws on the writings of a large number of thinkers, including Montesquieu, Sir James Steuart, and Adam Smith.

This book shows the origin of the capitalistic ethic and where the social and cultural benefits accrue from the pursuit of gain.

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Editorial Reviews

American Journal of Sociology
Hirschman's volume stands as a principal contribution to the growing literature that is beginning to reshape our understanding of the legitimating beliefs undergirding the rise of the modern market economy.
— Robert Wuthnow
Journal of Interdisciplinary History
A fresh and exciting argument of a fascinating thesis.
— Nannerl O. Keohane
American Journal of Sociology - Robert Wuthnow
Hirschman's volume stands as a principal contribution to the growing literature that is beginning to reshape our understanding of the legitimating beliefs undergirding the rise of the modern market economy.
Journal of Interdisciplinary History - Nannerl O. Keohane
A fresh and exciting argument of a fascinating thesis.
American Journal of Sociology

Hirschman's volume stands as a principal contribution to the growing literature that is beginning to reshape our understanding of the legitimating beliefs undergirding the rise of the modern market economy.
— Robert Wuthnow
Journal of Interdisciplinary History

A fresh and exciting argument of a fascinating thesis.
— Nannerl O. Keohane
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780691015989
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press
  • Publication date: 1/6/1997
  • Edition description: 20TH ANNIVERSARY
  • Edition number: 2
  • Pages: 180
  • Sales rank: 778,953
  • Product dimensions: 5.40 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 0.56 (d)

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction 3
Pt. 1 How the Interests were Called Upon to Counteract the Passions 7
The Idea of Glory and Its Downfall 9
Man "as he really is" 12
Repressing and Harnessing the Passions 14
The Principle of the Countervailing Passion 20
"Interest" and "Interests" as Tamers of the Passions 31
Interest as a New Paradigm 42
Assets of an Interest-Governed World: Predictability and Constancy 48
Money-Making and Commerce as Innocent and Doux 56
Money-Making as a Calm Passion 63
Pt. 2 How Economic Expansion was Expected to Improve the Political Order 67
Elements of a Doctrine 70
Related yet Discordant Views 93
Pt. 3 Reflections on an Episode in Intellectual History 115
Where the Montesquieu-Steuart Vision Went Wrong 117
The Promise of an Interest-Governed World versus the Protestant Ethnic 128
Contemporary Notes 132
Notes 137
Index 147
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