Category Archives: History
Labor and production — social versus individual
Today, I am reviewing the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 by Karl Marx, in The Marx-Engels Reader (Second Edition). The underlying theme developed in this work is showing labor as an estranging activity for humanity. Marx argues that the … Continue reading
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Filed under Economic, History, Intellectual, Social
Adam Smith’s invisible hand
The concept of the invisible hand is popularly known to be propitiated in the work of Adam Smith. This idea is explored in his The Wealth of Nations (Modern Library), as Smith writes that:
Agriculture, as the link enabling society
Adam Smith shows in Book III of his The Wealth of Nations (Modern Library), how the countryside and the town are intrinsically tied. “The great commerce of every civilized society, is that carried on between the inhabitants of the town … Continue reading
The root of life: labor and exchange
(The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is rich in well-explained ideas, though as with other reviews on this blog, I will touch only cursorily on some of these ideas due to the length of the tome.) In his The … Continue reading
Do groups evolve?
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt, Post 3/3 Proponents of gene-culture coevolution argue that cultural changes prompt genetic changes, and vice versa, such that they create a feedback loop, the one … Continue reading
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Filed under Contemporary, History, Psychology
Is reality different from potential?
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell. Post 2 of 2 Sowell writes about Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments, using the work to define a type of vision. Smith is in the school … Continue reading
Filed under Contemporary, History, Intellectual
Importance of the Individual in “The Iliad”
An epic poem about the fall of Troy, the Iliad of Homer is one of the oldest surviving texts in the Western canon, predating Aristotle and Plato. The tale opens in the ninth year of war between the Trojans and … Continue reading
Filed under Ancient, History, Literature
“A Conflict of Visions,” by Thomas Sowell, 1/2
Tome: A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles Author: Thomas Sowell Country of Origin: United States Genre: History / Politics This tome traces a genealogy of political and ideological thought from such thinkers as Karl Marx and Adam … Continue reading
Filed under Contemporary, History, Intellectual