The passions and the interests : political arguments for capitalism before its triumph
This text reconstructs the intellectual climate of the 17th and 18th centuries to illuminate the intricate ideological transformation that occurred, wherein the pursuit of material interests was assigned the role of containing the unruly and destructive passions of man. The book offers an interpretation of the rise of capitalism that emphasizes the continuities between old and new, in contrast to the assumption of a sharp break that is a common feature of both Marxist and Weberian thinking. Among the insights presented in the book is the ironical finding that capitalism was originally supposed to accomplish exactly what was soon denounced as its worst feature: the repression of passions in favour of the "harmless", if one dimensional, interests of commercial life. To portray this lengthy ideological change as an endogenous process, the author draws on the writings of a large number of thinkers, including Montesquieu, Sir James Steuart and Adam Smith
eBook, English, 1997, ©1977
20th anniversary ed View all formats and editions
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1997, ©1977
History
1 online resource (xxvi, 153 pages) : illustrations
9781400812080, 9781400822232, 9781400848515, 1400812089, 1400822238, 1400848512
52223451
pt. 1. How the interests were called upon to counteract the passions
pt. 2. How economic expansion was expected to improve the political order
pt. 3. Reflections on an episode in intellectual history