Smith and Marx Seminar

Catalog description

Adam Smith and Karl Marx share a broad view of the role of markets in society. Rather than view markets narrowly as simply mechanisms for efficient distribution, both saw a role for markets in shaping culture, politics and political conflict, and society - and vice versa. However, Marx and Smith differ in their overall assessment of the value of the market as an institution for promoting liberty and equality. Indeed, their perspectives, while overlapping in some respects, are distinctive in ways that resonate with debates in contemporary philosophy and political economy over the characteristics of a just society, sources of development (political and economic), and theories of change. This course explores Smith's and Marx's views of markets, property, liberty and equality, in the context of major societal transformations that took place in the nineteenth century, such as the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of modern democracy, Dickensian England, the role of institutions, and the rise of monopoly power.