Deep Ecology and Liberalism: The Greener Implications of Evolutionary Liberal Theory

1996 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gus diZerega

Liberalism and Deep Ecology are usually regarded as mutually exclusive. However, the “evolutionary” tradition of liberal thought, rooted in David Hume and Adam Smith, and including Michael Polanyi and F. A. Hayek, provides a foundation for their reconciliation. Linkage is through Hume and Smith's conception of sympathy, which today means empathy. For Hume, sympathy extends into the animal realm. Sympathy is essential for certain scientific work, and provides an foundation for both liberal and ecological ethics. Deep ecologists such as Arne Naess use the same concept. Linkage is first to biocentric ethics, and then, through examining natural beauty and, via Michael Polanyi's tacit knowledge, ecocentric ethics. The work of Hayek suggests how modern society might be harmonized with the requirements of nature. This deepens J. Baird Callicott's pioneering approach, uniting it with Lewis Hinchman's recent analysis. Liberalism's and Deep Ecology's foundations both benefit from their mutual integration.

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Fleischacker

AbstractFrom the earliest days of social science, in the writings of David Hume and Adam Smith, it has been difficult to make secular sense of the notion of sacredness in terms that believers in that notion can recognize as what they mean by it-social scientists instead tend almost universally to treat it as the consequence of an illusion of some kind. This paper explores the sources of that difficulty, arguing that it is built into the assumptions that make social science a science at all. It also argues that treating a category so central to the moral thinking of millions of people as resulting from an illusion breeds attitudes of condescension that are morally problematic. Using themes to be found especially in Kant, the paper proposes a way for social scientists to treat the category of sacredness with respect for moral purposes even while maintaining the presuppositions, for the purposes of their scientific work, that lead them to try to explain it away.


Author(s):  
Craig Smith

Adam Ferguson was a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and a leading member of the Scottish Enlightenment. A friend of David Hume and Adam Smith, Ferguson was among the leading exponents of the Scottish Enlightenment’s attempts to develop a science of man and was among the first in the English speaking world to make use of the terms civilization, civil society, and political science. This book challenges many of the prevailing assumptions about Ferguson’s thinking. It explores how Ferguson sought to create a methodology for moral science that combined empirically based social theory with normative moralising with a view to supporting the virtuous education of the British elite. The Ferguson that emerges is far from the stereotyped image of a nostalgic republican sceptical about modernity, and instead is one much closer to the mainstream Scottish Enlightenment’s defence of eighteenth century British commercial society.


Author(s):  
Christopher J. Berry

A collection of essays by a leading scholar. The work selected spans several decades, which together with three new unpublished pieces, cumulatively constitute a distinct interpretation of the Scottish Enlightenment as a whole while incorporating detailed examination of the work of David Hume and Adam Smith. There is, in addition, a substantial introduction which, alongside Berry’s personal intellectual history, provides a commentary on the development of the study of the Scottish Enlightenment from the 1960s. Each of the previously published chapters includes a postscript where Berry comments on subsequent work and his own retrospective assessment. The recurrent themes are the ideas of sociability and socialisation, the Humean science of man and Smith’s analysis of the relation between commerce and morality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
Farhad Rassekh

In the year 1749 Adam Smith conceived his theory of commercial liberty and David Hume laid the foundation of his monetary theory. These two intellectual developments, despite their brevity, heralded a paradigm shift in economic thinking. Smith expanded and promulgated his theory over the course of his scholarly career, culminating in the publication of The Wealth of Nations in 1776. Hume elaborated on the constituents of his monetary framework in several essays that were published in 1752. Although Smith and Hume devised their economic theories in 1749 independently, these theories complemented each other and to a considerable extent created the structure of classical economics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-378
Author(s):  
Muhammad Majdy Amiruddin ◽  
Muhammad Ismail ◽  
Hasanuddin Hasim

The reviving of modern economic theory is usually stated starting from the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Natoins, in 1776, although other thinkers who first also gave no small contribution. The main idea put forward by Adam Smith is that competition between various suppliers of goods and buyers will produce the best possibilities in the distribution of goods and services because it will encourage everyoe to do the specialization and increase in capital so that it will produce more value with a permanent workforce. From the Islamic perspective, there are several names that commonly known such, Baqir, Umar Chapra, and Mannan. The purpose of this research is to explore the revival economic though by Abdul Mannan. This research adapts content analysis method, which is a researcher conducts a discussion of the contents of written or edition information in the mass media. The data analysis techniques of this scientific work use literature study techniques, comparative, induction, and deduction. The study began by collecting literature data from Muhammad Abdul Mannan's Concept of Thinking about the Development of Modern Era Islamic economics and Modern Era Islamic Economic concepts in general, (researchers only participated in the discussion). Then proceed with the interpretation that researchers try to understand Muhammad Abdul Mannan's thoughts about the Development of Islamic Economics in the Modern Era. The result of this reseacrh indicates that the revival of Islamic thought by determining basic economic functions that simply cover three functions, namely consumption, production and distribution. Those basics are rooted by Five basic principles rooted in Shariah for basic economic functions in the form of consumption functions are the principles of righteousness, cleanliness, moderation, benefit and morality


Author(s):  
A.B. Osadcha

In the context of the rapid development of scientific and technological progress in Ukraine, including the medical field, a significant contribution belongs to scientific researches based on world recognition, and publications in scientific journals indexed in international bibliometric databases, will lead to the possibility of upgrading modern science in medical higher educational institutions. The most significant in modern society is not only activity process or thought, but the result that scientific research provides. Scientific activity is difficult to evaluate with only one parameter; moreover, there is a need for evaluation using qualitative indicators. The article presents author’s research results of publication activity level in the medical field in Ukraine, taking into account world experience based on international bibliometric database Clarivate Analytics’s Web of Science. Clarivate Analytics accelerates research progress by providing researchers with reliable information sources, analytics around the world, and the ability to quickly create, defend, and commercialize new ideas. Clarivate Analytics is an independent company with more than 4000 employees working in more than 100 countries, and has a well-known brand — Web of Science. It provides access to the largest database of scientific articles from carefully selected reputable journals. Researchers can use effective search instruments that take into account metadata and bibliographic references and allow you to get the highest quality, meaningful and impartial information. Web of Science is an accurate and reliable source of information for assessing scientific work, the most comprehensive resource in which both quality and quantity are equally valued.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigino Bruni ◽  
Robert Sugden

It is a truism that a market economy cannot function without trust. We must be able to rely on other people to respect our property rights, and on our trading partners to keep their promises. The theory of economics is incomplete unless it can explain why economic agents often trust one another, and why that trust is often repaid. There is a long history of work in economics and philosophy which tries to explain the kinds of reasoning that people use when they engage in practices of trust: this work develops theories of trust. A related tradition in economics, sociology and political science investigates the kinds of social institution that reproduce whatever habits, dispositions or modes of reasoning are involved in acts of trust: this work develops theories of social capital. A recurring question in these literatures is whether a society which organizes its economic life through markets is capable of reproducing the trust on which those markets depend. In this paper, we look at these themes in relation to the writings of three eighteenth-century philosopher-economists: David Hume, Adam Smith, and Antonio Genovesi.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriël Brink

Since the time of Adam Smith, scholars have tried to understand the role moral sentiments play in modern life, an issue that became especially urgent during and after the 2008 global financial crisis. Previous explanations have ranged from the idea that modern society is built on moral values to the notion that modernisation results in moral decay. The essays in this interdisciplinary volume use the example of Dutch society and a wealth of empirical data to propose a novel theory about the ambivalent relation between contemporary life and human nature. In the process, the contributors argue for the need to reject simplistic explanations and reinvent civil society.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-214
Author(s):  
Solange Regina Marin ◽  
André Marzulo Quintana ◽  
Cezar Augusto Pereira dos Santos
Keyword(s):  

Resumo John Rawls fundamenta o utilitarismo na concepção de observador ideal presente nas teorias dos sentimentalistas escoceses do século XVIII, particularmente nas teorias de David Hume e Adam Smith. Como a tese do utilitarismo não é tão explícita e acessível na ótica de ambos os filósofos escoceses, pretendemos, no presente trabalho, confrontar a tese do espectador imparcial de Smith e a crítica de Rawls à concepção do observador ideal como fundadora do utilitarismo. Observamos maior abrangência para o espectador imparcial em relação ao observador ideal utilitarista nas escolhas morais.


2018 ◽  
pp. 761-769
Author(s):  
Olga A. Ginatulina ◽  

The article analyzes the phenomenon of document as assessed in the study of value. To begin with, it poses a problem of contradictory axiological status of document in modern society. On the one hand, document is objectively important, as it completes certain practical tasks, and yet, on the other hand, documents and document management are receive a negative assessment in public consciousness. In order to understand this situation, the article analyzes the concept of ‘value’ and concludes that certain objects of the material world receive this status, if they are included in public practice and promote progress of society or human development. Although this abstract step towards a better understanding of values does not provide a comprehensive answer to the question of axiological nature of document, it however indicates a trend in development of thought towards analysis of the development of human nature. The document is an artifact that objectifies and reifies a certain side of human nature. Human nature is a heterogeneous phenomenon and exists on two levels. The first abstract level is represented by the human race and embodies the full range of universal features of humanity. The second level is the specific embodiment of generic universal human nature in specific historical type of individuals. Between these two levels there is a contradiction. On the one hand, man by nature tends toward universality, on the other hand, realization of his nature is limited by the frameworks of historical era and contributes to the development of only one side of the race. Accordingly, document has value only within a certain historical stage and conflicts with the trend of universal development of human nature, and thus receives a negative evaluation. However, emergence of a new type of work (general scientific work) will help to overcome this alienation between generic and limited individual human being, and therefore will make a great impact on the nature of document, making it more ‘human,’ thus increasing its value in the eyes of society.


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