Political Economy

Few nineteenth-century thinkers cast a longer shadow over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries than Karl Marx. Philosopher, economist, journalist and militant, Marx did not merely found a philosophical school: he supplied a vocabulary — class, ideology, surplus value, mode of production — that seeped into sociology, history, economics and cultural criticism, even among authors who reject him. This article focuses on three axes of his mature thought: historical materialism, the critique of political economy and the theory of ideology. Alienation, the central concept of the young Marx, is the subject of a separate study, and is mentioned here only where indispensable. ...

Adam Smith Scottish moral philosopher and economist, considered the father of modern political economy. A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and close friend of Hume. His work combines sentiment-based ethics with market theory. Key Concepts Invisible hand: individuals’ self-interest, channeled through the market, generates collective benefit without central planning — a metaphor for the spontaneous order of the price system Division of labor: specialization of tasks multiplies productivity; the classic example of the pin factory Labor theory of value: the value of commodities ultimately derives from the labor embodied in their production Moral sympathy: the foundation of ethics — the capacity to put oneself in another’s position and evaluate actions from the perspective of an “impartial spectator” Impartial spectator: an imaginary figure representing balanced moral judgment, detached from self-interest Critique of mercantilism: a nation’s wealth is not the accumulation of precious metals, but its productive capacity and free exchange Free market and laissez-faire: defense of competition and criticism of monopolies, corporate privileges, and arbitrary state interventions Influenced by Hume — moral sentimentalism and skepticism about state intervention Francis Hutcheson — ethics of moral sense (his professor at Glasgow) Locke and Montesquieu — liberal political theories Mandeville — paradox of private vices / public benefits Influenced Ricardo and Mill — classical economics Marx — inherited (and critiqued) the labor theory of value Bentham — utilitarianism and calculation of collective well-being Modern economic liberalism and neoliberalism (Hayek, Friedman) Works The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759); The Wealth of Nations (1776). ...

Karl Marx Born in Trier, in the Prussian Rhineland, in 1818, Karl Marx studied law and philosophy in Bonn and Berlin, where he drew close to the Young Hegelians. Barred from an academic career by his radical positions, he turned to journalism and, hounded by censorship, went into exile in Paris, Brussels, and finally London, where he lived through decades of poverty, sustained by his friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels and poring over the economists in the Reading Room of the British Museum. More than to interpret the world, he wanted to transform it: “the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it” (Thesis 11 on Feuerbach). ...