Interesting post on ThinkMarkets, a list of great ideas in the social sciences. “Great” here means mix of good and bad ideas, for example
* The state as the individual writ large (Plato)
* Man is a political/social animal (Aristotle)
* The city of God versus the city of man (Augustine)
* What is moral for the individual may not be for the ruler (Machiavelli)
* Invisible hand mechanisms (Hume, Smith, Ferguson)
* Class struggle (Marx, various liberal thinkers)
* The subconscious has a logic of its own (Freud)
* Marginalism (Menger, Jevons, Walras)
Comment
What about adding limited government, property rights and the rule of law?
And democracy, not as a theory of sovereignty but just a way of rolling over the leadership without killing them? A German was onto limited government, can’t recall his name but Mill dedicated one of his books to him.
You could add communism and attribute that to Plato along with collectivist social justice.
The unintended consequences of social action (Merton).
Ronaldo
1 Sep 12 at 1:17 pm
Thou shalt love your God , and your neighbour as yourself J Christ
blind freddy
1 Sep 12 at 1:20 pm
It depends how the elites circulate. Anyway, limited government trumps all the debates about who should rule.
Unintended consequences is an Austrian idea as much as Merton. But certainly one for the list.
Poor Old Rafe
1 Sep 12 at 1:22 pm
Cicero and Hegel.
Abu Chowdah
1 Sep 12 at 1:36 pm
“Great” social and political ideas can be dangerous and destructive.
Look how many millions have been led to destruction on the rocky shoals, lured by the siren song of Marxism.
dd
1 Sep 12 at 1:40 pm
Great Ideas in the Social Sciences?
Idea #1 “Finance your own life from your own work, ars*holes, and I’ll finance mine and then we’ll get on just great.”
Idea #1 b “If you can’t finance your own life, don’t have more kids, holiday in Altona and live in a caravan. And above all, don’t demand I spend my fishing trip money as taxes on your incompetence.”
Alfonso
1 Sep 12 at 2:33 pm
This looks like a handy site for classical liberals and Australian economists.
Poor Old Rafe
1 Sep 12 at 2:50 pm
In the future Communism, environmentalism, socialism and religion will simply be points on what we call now the “Autism spectrum”.
I’m the only one who thinks that but it’s a fucking great idea.
Ooh Honey Honey
1 Sep 12 at 3:28 pm
Not wanting to nitpick, but “liberalism leads to the discovery of that society that best conforms to human values” indicates an arrival at a destination, and not merely a process. And how did they discover “human values”, not merely the institutions that “best conforms with human values”?
dover_beach
1 Sep 12 at 3:28 pm
d_B I get where Rafe’s quote is coming from.
It’s a strong but oft-overlooked argument for libertarianism – the journey is as good if not better than the detination, which is probably unreachable anyway. Generally, every single thing we do to reduce the size and power of government will yield immediate overall benefits to society.
Compare this to Marx’s philosophy that said you have to impose a ruthless dictatorship for several generations before the ‘stateless, classless’ utopia became a reality. Unsurprisingly, they got stuck on the dictatorship bit.
OOH, shows you don’t undertand the autism spectrum at all. It’s probably the most individualistic mindset there is.
papachango
1 Sep 12 at 3:55 pm
Good point.
But they freak out when things don’t go according to the rules.
Ooh Honey Honey
1 Sep 12 at 4:28 pm
Yes, I understand that, papachango, but I was addressing the purported epistemological modesty of liberalism (and science for that matter).
dover_beach
1 Sep 12 at 6:05 pm
Bwaaa…..
The epistemological, the epistemological……
Guess it depends on which poor working bastard is paying for the mendicant’s lifestyle….eh, bro-i-poos?
Alfonso
1 Sep 12 at 6:15 pm
Great ideas in social science?
Rohypnol aka roofies
entropy
1 Sep 12 at 6:46 pm
“A German was onto limited government, can’t recall his name but Mill dedicated one of his books to him.”
Are you thinking of Wilhelm Von Humboldt?
Alex Robson
1 Sep 12 at 7:18 pm
yes but generally accoriding to their own unique rules they’ve set for themselves
papachango
1 Sep 12 at 7:20 pm
Guess it depends on which poor working bastard is paying for the mendicant’s lifestyle….eh, bro-i-poos?
People that work two jobs aren’t mendicants.
dover_beach
1 Sep 12 at 7:36 pm
Bwaaa….
You see, dover, I can cope with my work product and wealth providing for the mendicants who are required to be nothing else…….I’m an indoctrinated post modernist like you…..
What I really need is for the mendicants to have a day where they construct a small shrine, in appreciation, at my front gate.
Some fresh fruit, a couple of incense sticks, a home made thank you card…..nothing flash. Then I can gird up my loins to support the mendicant comrades for one more year.
Sigh….I’m taken for granted and that’s compulsory, aren’t it Jules?
Alfonso
1 Sep 12 at 8:54 pm
ooh honey honey says
”
In the future Communism, environmentalism, socialism and religion will simply be points on what we call now the “Autism spectrum”.
I’m the only one who thinks that but it’s a fucking great idea.
”
you forgot anothe flawed idea – libertarianism
All these names just give us a reason to divide ourselves and thats whats so crap about it – spend so much time fighting nothing gets done. Its like an AGM meeting in a block of units. Rule by committees.
uggghh painful as hell
Alice
1 Sep 12 at 9:07 pm
Warren Beatty in Bulworth 1998
Splatacrobat
1 Sep 12 at 10:34 pm
I’m an indoctrinated post modernist like you…..
Please don’t swear at me.
dover_beach
2 Sep 12 at 12:34 am
I don’t think the ‘clerisy‘ is one.
(I consider our own clerisy to be one of the biggest threats to our long term economic (and political) prosperity. The size of our public sector, Australian average weekly earnings now higher in the public sector than private sector, a unionised public sector etc. are all deeply unhealthy in my view and need more than just cutting public sector jobs during your first year in office, only to grow them again by the third.)
CC
2 Sep 12 at 3:04 am
d_b, as the author of the quote I will try to explain.
“Human values” is an abstraction that represents the aggregation of individual’s values at any given moment. I think Thomas Paine said that “the public good is the collected good of those individuals,” and I am using the abstraction in a similar way – not to represent some idealized collective agreement. So, it should be clear that human values vary from society to society and over time; thus there is no specific destination that is to be designed or aimed-for.
In my reference to predators I did indicate that not every individual’s values must be respected or provided for in a society. What I expect is that some fundamental values will be shared, and that those who reject them will find life difficult. Societies that adhere to a set of values that produces opportunity and tranquility will attract more members and grow. Allow me to reference you to a previous post: http://radicalliberal.blogspot.com/2009/07/competition-as-discovery-procedure-for.html
Brian
Brian J. Gladish
2 Sep 12 at 8:27 am
The last great idea in social science was the Constitution of the USA. Before that, the Ten Commandments. The rest is academic crap we’d have been better off without.
Eyrie
2 Sep 12 at 2:49 pm
Marx’s theorising on alienation was actually pretty good.
Abu Chowdah
3 Sep 12 at 2:23 am
Works for me, Papachango. Ever since I read Candide, anyway.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.
3 Sep 12 at 10:21 am