Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Natural law: Natural law is a philosophy asserting that certain rights and moral values are inherent in human nature and discoverable through reason. In economics and politics, it supports the idea that laws and institutions should align with universal principles of justice, liberty, and human dignity, rather than arbitrary authority. See also Natural justice, Justice, Law._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Adam Smith on Natural Law - Dictionary of Arguments
Otteson I 47 Natural Law/Adam Smith/Otteson: (…) Adam Smith did not advocate or rely on a theory of natural law or natural rights. He had read his John Locke (1632-1704), of course, and the surviving students' notes from the lectures on jurisprudence he gave at the University of Glasgow (…) that Smith extensively discussed Locke's theory of natural law and natural rights. But when it came to Smith's own discussion of and justification for the proper role of government in human life, natural law and natural rights play no role. Property: Similarly, Smith gave us no overt theory of property, let alone private property. Government/Adam SmithVsLocke: So unlike Locke - and the American founding fathers, many of whom read Smith - Smith does not argue that the government's job is to protect our natural rights to "life, liberty, and estate" (Locke) or to protect our "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence). His argument proceeds largely empirically. He examined human history, and many of the experiments different people in different times ran with differing systems of political economy. He found that most such experiments failed to conduce to people's overall happiness and failed to create general prosperity. But occasionally some people hit on ideas and institutions that did generate benefit, and very recently (in his day) some few places seemed to be generating considerably more wealth and prosperity than other places. This enabled Smith, as an empirical political economist, to make fruitful comparisons, and to begin to tease out of the historical record some policies that might, if applied more extensively, allow the generation of even more prosperity. Justice: The first conclusion he reaches is that a specific concept of "justice“ - including (…) the "sacred" protections of every individual's person, property, and promises - is necessary for any human society to survive. A society that does not respect these things, that does not enforce protection of them, and that does not punish infractions of them is one that is headed, sooner or later, for collapse. >John Locke, >Justice/Adam Smith, >Property rights, >Government policy/Adam Smith._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
EconSmith I Adam Smith The Theory of Moral Sentiments London 2010 EconSmithV I Vernon L. Smith Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Forms Cambridge 2009 Otteson I James R. Otteson The Essential Adam Smith Vancouver: Fraser Institute. 2018 |
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