Episode 18
Origins of Economic Man and the Foundations of the Moral Economy | Sam Bowles
Episode 18
Samuel Bowles
Origins of Economic Man and the Foundations of the Moral Economy | Sam Bowles
summary
In this week’s episode of Hidden Forces, host Demetri Kofinas speaks with Samuel Bowles, about economic man and the moral economy, exploring some of the latest insights from the field of behavioral economics with insights about how incentives and prices convey information and shape perceptions of value in the economy. Dr. Bowles is a Research Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, where he heads the Behavioral Sciences Program. His studies on cultural and genetic evolution have challenged the conventional economic assumptions of an economic man motivated entirely by self-interest. The author of nearly twenty books, Samuel Bowles has most recently written The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens and A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution.
In today’s conversation, we follow the archeological record of economic man. We pursue the path towards rational expectations and utility maximization. We take the road from Aristotle, paying heed to his ethics, and to his conviction that the test of a good constitution, is a good citizenry. But, with the collapse of Rome and Europe’s descent into darkness emerge ideas of life as brutish and man, as wicked. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan and Niccolò Machiavelli’s Prince, were written to appeal to the lowest, most unimpressive motives of man’s animal nature. Later, political economists like Bernard Mandeville and Adam Smith would take this notion further. They sought to harness the industries of avarice, converting man’s self-interest towards the public good. The invisible hand emerged, and with it, notions of separability. Homo Sapiens existed in one realm, and economic man in another. The beneficent, moral being on the one hand, and the selfish, utility maximizing agent on the other. Laws were built upon this framework. Ideas of the marketplace were developed. Incentives and regulations were crafted, in what economists call Mechanism Design. What have we learned in the years since that have challenged the foundations of these neoclassical assumptions? What has come of rational expectations and utility maximization? What are some of the insights of behavioral economists, moral philosophers, and evolutionary psychologists that task the fitness of economic man? What types of systems can we design that are better suited towards the citizens of Aristotle’s legislator than to the aberrations of modern economic man?
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Join the conversation at @hiddenforcespod
bio
Samuel Bowles (PhD, Economics, Harvard University) is Research Professor at the Santa Fe Institute where he heads the Behavioral Sciences Program. He taught economics at Harvard from 1965 to 1973 and since then at the University of Massachusetts, where he is now emeritus professor and at the University of Siena from 2002 to 2010.
His recent scholarly papers have appeared in Science, Nature, American Economic Review, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Behavioral and Brain Science, and Philosophy and Public Affairs. Recent books include The Moral Economy: Good laws are no substitute for good citizens, A Cooperative Species: Human reciprocity and its evolution (with Herbert Gintis), The new economics of inequality and redistribution, and Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions and Evolution). He is currently working on Equality’s Fate: The origins and future of economic disparity and political hierarchy.
He has also advised the governments of Cuba, South Africa and Greece, to Robert F. Kennedy and Jesse Jackson, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and to South African President Nelson Mandela.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quod autem satis est, eo quicquid accessit, nimium est; Tria genera bonorum; Sic enim censent, oportunitatis esse beate vivere. Nunc omni virtuti vitium contrario nomine opponitur. Duo Reges: constructio interrete.
Inde sermone vario sex illa a Dipylo stadia confecimus. Tum, Quintus et Pomponius cum idem se velle dixissent, Piso exorsus est. Teneo, inquit, finem illi videri nihil dolere. Utrum igitur tibi litteram videor an totas paginas commovere? Ex quo intellegitur officium medium quiddam esse, quod neque in bonis ponatur neque in contrariis.
Respondent extrema primis, media utrisque, omnia omnibus. Vestri haec verecundius, illi fortasse constantius. Isto modo ne improbos quidem, si essent boni viri. Dici enim nihil potest verius.
Causa autem fuit huc veniendi ut quosdam hinc libros promerem. Ipse Epicurus fortasse redderet, ut Sextus Peducaeus, Sex. Nonne videmus quanta perturbatio rerum omnium consequatur, quanta confusio? Stoicos roga. Non autem hoc: igitur ne illud quidem.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sin tantum modo ad indicia veteris memoriae cognoscenda, curiosorum. Nec hoc ille non vidit, sed verborum magnificentia est et gloria delectatus. Nam Pyrrho, Aristo, Erillus iam diu abiecti. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Re mihi non aeque satisfacit, et quidem locis pluribus. Satisne igitur videor vim verborum tenere, an sum etiam nunc vel Graece loqui vel Latine docendus? Tria genera cupiditatum, naturales et necessariae, naturales et non necessariae, nec naturales nec necessariae.
Dolor ergo, id est summum malum, metuetur semper, etiamsi non aderit; Cur, nisi quod turpis oratio est? Sed quia studebat laudi et dignitati, multum in virtute processerat. Post enim Chrysippum eum non sane est disputatum. Idemne, quod iucunde? Unum est sine dolore esse, alterum cum voluptate. Ampulla enim sit necne sit, quis non iure optimo irrideatur, si laboret? Minime vero, inquit ille, consentit.
Quippe: habes enim a rhetoribus; Eiuro, inquit adridens, iniquum, hac quidem de re; Tum Piso: Quoniam igitur aliquid omnes, quid Lucius noster? Mihi quidem Homerus huius modi quiddam vidisse videatur in iis, quae de Sirenum cantibus finxerit. Qui autem esse poteris, nisi te amor ipse ceperit? Nec enim, dum metuit, iustus est, et certe, si metuere destiterit, non erit; Si enim ad populum me vocas, eum. Huius, Lyco, oratione locuples, rebus ipsis ielunior. Cur fortior sit, si illud, quod tute concedis, asperum et vix ferendum putabit?
An ea, quae per vinitorem antea consequebatur, per se ipsa curabit? An hoc usque quaque, aliter in vita? Nec vero intermittunt aut admirationem earum rerum, quae sunt ab antiquis repertae, aut investigationem novarum. Bonum negas esse divitias, praeposìtum esse dicis? Quis est enim, in quo sit cupiditas, quin recte cupidus dici possit? Neque solum ea communia, verum etiam paria esse dixerunt.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cum praesertim illa perdiscere ludus esset. Nihil acciderat ei, quod nollet, nisi quod anulum, quo delectabatur, in mari abiecerat. Quod autem ratione actum est, id officium appellamus. Sed quae tandem ista ratio est? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Non est igitur summum malum dolor. Immo istud quidem, inquam, quo loco quidque, nisi iniquum postulo, arbitratu meo. Mihi enim satis est, ipsis non satis. Illa tamen simplicia, vestra versuta. Polemoni et iam ante Aristoteli ea prima visa sunt, quae paulo ante dixi.
Egone quaeris, inquit, quid sentiam? Isto modo ne improbos quidem, si essent boni viri. Cum autem in quo sapienter dicimus, id a primo rectissime dicitur. At quicum ioca seria, ut dicitur, quicum arcana, quicum occulta omnia? Atque haec coniunctio confusioque virtutum tamen a philosophis ratione quadam distinguitur. Age nunc isti doceant, vel tu potius quis enim ista melius? Laboro autem non sine causa; Si qua in iis corrigere voluit, deteriora fecit. Quod maxime efficit Theophrasti de beata vita liber, in quo multum admodum fortunae datur.
Utinam quidem dicerent alium alio beatiorem! Iam ruinas videres. An ea, quae per vinitorem antea consequebatur, per se ipsa curabit? Suo enim quisque studio maxime ducitur. Etenim nec iustitia nec amicitia esse omnino poterunt, nisi ipsae per se expetuntur. Sint ista Graecorum; Quae si potest singula consolando levare, universa quo modo sustinebit?
Quam ob rem tandem, inquit, non satisfacit? Nam, ut sint illa vendibiliora, haec uberiora certe sunt. Qua tu etiam inprudens utebare non numquam. Tum Piso: Quoniam igitur aliquid omnes, quid Lucius noster? Primum in nostrane potestate est, quid meminerimus? Intellegi quidem, ut propter aliam quampiam rem, verbi gratia propter voluptatem, nos amemus; Profectus in exilium Tubulus statim nec respondere ausus; Frater et T. Ita ne hoc quidem modo paria peccata sunt. Paria sunt igitur.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Huius ego nunc auctoritatem sequens idem faciam. Quid dubitas igitur mutare principia naturae?
Sed utrum hortandus es nobis, Luci, inquit, an etiam tua sponte propensus es? Idem iste, inquam, de voluptate quid sentit? Suam denique cuique naturam esse ad vivendum ducem. Nihil acciderat ei, quod nollet, nisi quod anulum, quo delectabatur, in mari abiecerat. A quibus propter discendi cupiditatem videmus ultimas terras esse peragratas. Tollenda est atque extrahenda radicitus. Heri, inquam, ludis commissis ex urbe profectus veni ad vesperum. Nam ista vestra: Si gravis, brevis; At iam decimum annum in spelunca iacet. Cum id quoque, ut cupiebat, audivisset, evelli iussit eam, qua erat transfixus, hastam.
Hinc ceteri particulas arripere conati suam quisque videro voluit afferre sententiam. Confecta res esset. At ille pellit, qui permulcet sensum voluptate. Qui enim existimabit posse se miserum esse beatus non erit. Quod totum contra est. Et quidem, Cato, hanc totam copiam iam Lucullo nostro notam esse oportebit; Non minor, inquit, voluptas percipitur ex vilissimis rebus quam ex pretiosissimis. His similes sunt omnes, qui virtuti student levantur vitiis, levantur erroribus, nisi forte censes Ti.
Quod ea non occurrentia fingunt, vincunt Aristonem; Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Ita ne hoc quidem modo paria peccata sunt. Sed haec nihil sane ad rem; Ille vero, si insipiens-quo certe, quoniam tyrannus -, numquam beatus; Potius ergo illa dicantur: turpe esse, viri non esse debilitari dolore, frangi, succumbere. In quibus doctissimi illi veteres inesse quiddam caeleste et divinum putaverunt.