Monday, October 24, 2011

A Marxist Writes About Adam Smith's Ethics

Andy’ (‘Ph.D. supervisor’) produces papers related to Adam Smith, HERE

"A Study on Adam Smith’s Economic Ethics–In the Perspective of Marxist" [what?]

Abstract.
Adam Smith is not only a master of economy in Br[itain], but also a palmary ethicist. He left two excellent works, the one is An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (short of The Wealth of Nations), which is regarded as a “Bible” in economics field, and the other is The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which is regarded as “crown jewel” in economics field. In The Wealth of Nations he created a classical economics system of “rich country and wealthy people”, in The Theory of Moral Sentiments set out with “happy life of citizens” as the goal of ethics. Beginning with the origin of Adam Smith’s economic ethics thoughts and historical evolution, followed by the “economic man” and the “invisible hand” to prove Adam Smith’s core of the economic ethics in The Wealth of Nations, then from “the human nature “to prove the [the]oretical cornerstone of Adam Smith’s economic ethics thoughts in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, then from the evaluation of the Adam Smith’s Economic Ethics thoughts and learning from China the latest results of academic research in recent years and analyzing key issues in Ethics of Market Economy, come up with he ethical thoughts ’construction in [a] Socialist market economy. From the beginning of the first chapter, elaborating on the theory research Article topics, the current theoretical research, and giving the normative definition of the key concept. Chapter II to Chapter V is the main part of the paper. The second chapter is the analysis of Adam Smith’s Economic Ethics about the origin and history of evolution theory. The third chapter is from the “economic man” and the “invisible hand” to describe the core of Adam Smith’s Economic Ethics thoughts. Chapter IV is mainly from the “human nature” point to view of Adam Smith’s Economic Ethics’s theoretical foundation. The fifth chapter is the impact on the history assessment of Adam Smith’s Economic Ethics, while building a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics and ethical framework, which is the destination of entire article."


Comment
There are a few typo errors and unfinished thoughts (shown in my square brackets, including an unfinished title) in the abstract and this makes it difficult to assess Andy’s ideas.

The charge of $38 to read the paper prohibits my deploying that expense. Plus the questionable ideas as presented, such as:

Beginning with the origin of Adam Smith’s economic ethics thoughts and historical evolution, followed by the “economic man” and the “invisible hand” to prove Adam Smith’s core of the economic ethics in The Wealth of Nations, then from “the human nature “to prove the [the]oretical cornerstone of Adam Smith’s economic ethics thoughts in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, then from the evaluation of the Adam Smith’s Economic Ethics thoughts and learning from China the latest results of academic research in recent years and analyzing key issues in Ethics of Market Economy, come up with he ethical thoughts ’construction in [a] Socialist market economy.”

I am sorry to say so, but such writing does not earn enough confidence to warrant spending $38 a paper.

For the record, Adam Smith did not have a theory (nor did he mention) “economic man”. This idea was created in the 1870s; Adam Smith died in 1790. As for the so-called “invisible hand”, a lonely metaphor mentioned in both books, that too, in its modern guise, is an wholly invented ‘theory’ by modern economists, primarily among Paul Samuelson’s generation from 1948 - 2010, and bears little relevance to what Adam Smith wrote when he used it.

I am sure that Andy is a sincere student of Adam Smith and may have some interesting contributions to make, and normally I would certainly like to try the seven papers he has written, as listed on his web site. But not on what is shown above.

I am always willing to encourage contributions on Adam Smith and I am not being critical in order to discourage them, but there are certain basic standards in scholarly discourse that must be reached if they are to be taken seriously. Hence, with regret, on the above performance, and in the meantime, I shall not pursue my interest in Andy’ work further.

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