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Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment
In a brilliant recreation of the epoch between the 1770s and the 1820s, Emma Rothschild reinterprets the ideas of the great revolutionary political economists to show us the true landscape of economic and political thought in their day, with important consequences for our own. Her work alters the readings of Adam Smith and Condorcet--and of ideas of Enlightenment--that underlie much contemporary political thought.
Economic Sentiments takes up late-eighteenth-century disputes over the political economy of an enlightened, commercial society to show us how the "political" and the "economic" were intricately related to each other and to philosophical reflection. Rothschild examines theories of economic and political sentiments, and the reflection of these theories in the politics of enlightenment. A landmark in the history of economics and of political ideas, her book shows us the origins of laissez-faire economic thought and its relation to political conservatism in an unquiet world. In doing so, it casts a new light on our own times.
Economic Sentiments takes up late-eighteenth-century disputes over the political economy of an enlightened, commercial society to show us how the "political" and the "economic" were intricately related to each other and to philosophical reflection. Rothschild examines theories of economic and political sentiments, and the reflection of these theories in the politics of enlightenment. A landmark in the history of economics and of political ideas, her book shows us the origins of laissez-faire economic thought and its relation to political conservatism in an unquiet world. In doing so, it casts a new light on our own times.
365 pages, Paperback
First published May 16, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 1, 2013
In this book, Emma Rothschild argues that while many Enlightenment thinkers, especially Adam Smith and the Marquis de Condorcet, were obsessed with freedom of commerce, commerce to them was mainly a means to advance cultural and personal liberty. To prove it, she plunges deep into their writings and into the general milieu of the Enlightenment. She comes up with some precious insights and quotes, even if they are not always apropos, and even if the conclusions she draws from them are not always warranted.
Rothschild (apparently, yes, she is related to THOSE Rothschilds) does prove, however, that Adam Smith was an undisputed radical. In the 1790s he was quoted favorably by the semi-atheist Thomas Paine, the early anarchist William Godwin, and the proto-feminist Mary Wollenscraft. Rothschild then blames Dugald Stewart, Smith's friend and posthumous scribe, for overplaying his conservative side in the "Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith," supposedly in fear of the sedition and conspiracy trials in Scotland after 1793. In this, as in much else, Rothschild overplays her hand. She takes a few well-played quotes from Smith (defending wage regulations for the poor, arguing for progressive taxation on carriages), and makes as if he was a secret New Dealer, basically by claiming that if cultural freedom was his end, these would have been good means. She ignores both those early conservative/liberal defenders of Smith, such as Prime Minister William Pitt, and Smith's overwhelming concern with breaking down government regulations. It is true that the latter made him at this time a radical, for workers at the time bore the brunt of the apprenticeship, settlement and other regulatory statutes (Smith famously said that government may be considered "In every case as a combination of the rich to oppress the poor"), but that does not make him the kind of radical Rothschild wants him to be. In a similar vein, her most surprising argument, that the three brief mentions of the "invisible hand" in Smith were really no more than a private joke, while recognizing the modern over-emphasis on the phrase, does not in reality disprove that it represented the general tenor of Smiths' thought.
Condorcet is the less familiar of the two main characters here, but in a way he comes across as the deeper, if even more mercurial, thinker. He was first a friend of Turgot when that young Economiste helped Louis XVI break down many of the feudalistic appendages of the French government (at least before he was replaced by the cameralist minister Necker). Condorcet then wrote the widely admired "Vie de Turgot," which inspired liberals across the continent. In his writings, Condorcet was most of all concerned with the psychological dangers of power (which Smith often noted but didn't emphasize). He critiqued the "universal passion for positions," and the "vexations" inevitable when petty magistrates oppress people to showcase their power. Perhaps, however, Condorcet's admirable love of universal education, which mirrored Smith's, was colored somewhat by his belief that it was a government's job to "institute a people" and reshape them, while Smith recognized that changing a people's dispositions was difficult if not impossible.
So Rothschild shows that both men, and others around them, were worried about the vexations and temptations of power, and that economic freedom was just one of the freedoms they championed (the "incorporation" that Smith attacked perhaps more than any other was after all that holy monopoly, the Anglican church). Freedom was a virtue whatever its outcomes they said. Rothschild could have shown as much too without so much hyperbole and confusion.
Rothschild (apparently, yes, she is related to THOSE Rothschilds) does prove, however, that Adam Smith was an undisputed radical. In the 1790s he was quoted favorably by the semi-atheist Thomas Paine, the early anarchist William Godwin, and the proto-feminist Mary Wollenscraft. Rothschild then blames Dugald Stewart, Smith's friend and posthumous scribe, for overplaying his conservative side in the "Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith," supposedly in fear of the sedition and conspiracy trials in Scotland after 1793. In this, as in much else, Rothschild overplays her hand. She takes a few well-played quotes from Smith (defending wage regulations for the poor, arguing for progressive taxation on carriages), and makes as if he was a secret New Dealer, basically by claiming that if cultural freedom was his end, these would have been good means. She ignores both those early conservative/liberal defenders of Smith, such as Prime Minister William Pitt, and Smith's overwhelming concern with breaking down government regulations. It is true that the latter made him at this time a radical, for workers at the time bore the brunt of the apprenticeship, settlement and other regulatory statutes (Smith famously said that government may be considered "In every case as a combination of the rich to oppress the poor"), but that does not make him the kind of radical Rothschild wants him to be. In a similar vein, her most surprising argument, that the three brief mentions of the "invisible hand" in Smith were really no more than a private joke, while recognizing the modern over-emphasis on the phrase, does not in reality disprove that it represented the general tenor of Smiths' thought.
Condorcet is the less familiar of the two main characters here, but in a way he comes across as the deeper, if even more mercurial, thinker. He was first a friend of Turgot when that young Economiste helped Louis XVI break down many of the feudalistic appendages of the French government (at least before he was replaced by the cameralist minister Necker). Condorcet then wrote the widely admired "Vie de Turgot," which inspired liberals across the continent. In his writings, Condorcet was most of all concerned with the psychological dangers of power (which Smith often noted but didn't emphasize). He critiqued the "universal passion for positions," and the "vexations" inevitable when petty magistrates oppress people to showcase their power. Perhaps, however, Condorcet's admirable love of universal education, which mirrored Smith's, was colored somewhat by his belief that it was a government's job to "institute a people" and reshape them, while Smith recognized that changing a people's dispositions was difficult if not impossible.
So Rothschild shows that both men, and others around them, were worried about the vexations and temptations of power, and that economic freedom was just one of the freedoms they championed (the "incorporation" that Smith attacked perhaps more than any other was after all that holy monopoly, the Anglican church). Freedom was a virtue whatever its outcomes they said. Rothschild could have shown as much too without so much hyperbole and confusion.
February 5, 2012
An excellent re-interpretation of the role of Adam Smith in the creation of a new way of thinking about economics. Instead of the slave to libertarians, Rothschild shows how Smith actually fits more in with Thomas Paine and the French Revolution than he does with the likes of Edmund Burke.
February 6, 2017
"Our sense of familiarity of 18th century thought is an illusion, above all,because of our unequal knowledge”
Economic Sentiments is a history of economics and political thought, a history of science and ideas, a history of Smith, Condorcet, Hume, and Kant. “Sentiments” is not light reading but packed with the analysis of the ideas of an earlier world. It is a philosophical book with roots in the Enlightenment, before the Jacobin Terror took hold. Adam Smith stated that events have both internal and external causes. It is the more interesting internal causes that “lead us into…the knowledge of motives by which men act.”
These men (and others) brought the world as we know it into being. Voltaire's invisible hand in Oedipal and Ovid's gloved hand stabbing a soldier between the shoulder blades in Metamorphosis morph into the Adam Smiths “Invisble hand”. Rothchild cites this as being ironic when written but now taken to be nothing short of gospel. Hayek’s "...the order which formed itself spontaneously was also the best order possible” seems to ring too closely to Voltaires highly satiric Candide “all is the best in the best of all possible worlds”. “Sentiments” shines a light on the major works and holds them up for analysis and critique. Even if we do not agree with her analysis, the more important point is that we ponder the questions.
Economic Sentiments is a history of economics and political thought, a history of science and ideas, a history of Smith, Condorcet, Hume, and Kant. “Sentiments” is not light reading but packed with the analysis of the ideas of an earlier world. It is a philosophical book with roots in the Enlightenment, before the Jacobin Terror took hold. Adam Smith stated that events have both internal and external causes. It is the more interesting internal causes that “lead us into…the knowledge of motives by which men act.”
These men (and others) brought the world as we know it into being. Voltaire's invisible hand in Oedipal and Ovid's gloved hand stabbing a soldier between the shoulder blades in Metamorphosis morph into the Adam Smiths “Invisble hand”. Rothchild cites this as being ironic when written but now taken to be nothing short of gospel. Hayek’s "...the order which formed itself spontaneously was also the best order possible” seems to ring too closely to Voltaires highly satiric Candide “all is the best in the best of all possible worlds”. “Sentiments” shines a light on the major works and holds them up for analysis and critique. Even if we do not agree with her analysis, the more important point is that we ponder the questions.
June 2, 2022
Rothschild explores the protoliberal economic thought of the decades surrounding the French Revolution, before modern economics had taken shape. In Adam Smith and Condorcet, but also Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, who gets nearly as much treatment in the book despite failing to appear in the title, Rothschild finds a warm, humanistic Enlightenment. This contrasts with the cold rationalism that Smith especially and the laissez-faire economists more generally would come to be associated with. Rothschild finds a rich concern for human well-being and a doctrinal flexibility that would belie what came to be known as laissez-faire.
July 23, 2011
Emma Rothschild recrea gran parte del pensamiento de la Ilustración particularmente el de Adamn Smith y el Marques de Condorcet, rescata las ideas de estos pensadores y del pensamiento Fisiocrata de los llamados Economisté mostrando no la ilustración conservadora que se enseña hoy en día si no su real espíritu liberal, un liberalismo bien entendido no un odio al estado solo al estado absolutista no una adoración dogmática del mercado solo la necesaria, al nacer estos conceptos estado y mercado nacen juntos y son inseparables.
Sentimientos Económicos le da un lado humano pensadores siempre vistos como seres fríos y calculadores, los muestra como seres emocionales y siempre en constante duda incluso sobre sus propios principios filosóficos.
El liberalismo nació del pensamiento progresista de una "izquierda" en sus inicios y fue perdiendo su fuerza con la separación del liberalismo político y del económico, este libre nos muestra como no pueden ser separados y rescata toda una era para un mundo que la necesita.
Sentimientos Económicos le da un lado humano pensadores siempre vistos como seres fríos y calculadores, los muestra como seres emocionales y siempre en constante duda incluso sobre sus propios principios filosóficos.
El liberalismo nació del pensamiento progresista de una "izquierda" en sus inicios y fue perdiendo su fuerza con la separación del liberalismo político y del económico, este libre nos muestra como no pueden ser separados y rescata toda una era para un mundo que la necesita.
July 11, 2013
It's even more fascinating than when I first read it in 2001. Very sophisticated book, high brow historical essays (I don't know a better word for the chapters. They're not essays in the sense that Rothschild is simply improvising or adlibbing: she's very much on top of the subjects she writes about).
I'n rereading it because at the time I considered it of enormous importance for anybody interested in current affairs, although that's not what the book is about. I was in the process of reconstructing my view of history, stretching a lot further back than the period I had been almost exclusively interested in before 2002. This is an intellectual work that's still in progress. I wonder if I'll ever finish it.
This is very good stuff. I'm going to insert a short abstract of the salient parts in a text I'n finishing now, about September 2002.
I'n rereading it because at the time I considered it of enormous importance for anybody interested in current affairs, although that's not what the book is about. I was in the process of reconstructing my view of history, stretching a lot further back than the period I had been almost exclusively interested in before 2002. This is an intellectual work that's still in progress. I wonder if I'll ever finish it.
This is very good stuff. I'm going to insert a short abstract of the salient parts in a text I'n finishing now, about September 2002.
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August 17, 2008Emma Rothschild je odlicna znanstvenica. I'm in awe. Z njenim mozem, Amartya Senom, sta pravi intelektualni power couple.
April 30, 2010
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September 23, 2010"Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment by Emma Rothschild (2002)"
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews