Economic Morality:
Ancient to Modern Readings
Edited by Henry C. Clark and Eric Allison
Lexington Books (November 2014)
ISBN: 978-0-7391-9250-4
353 pages
Introduction
ix
Acknowledgments
xxv
PART ONE: Greeks and Romans
1
1.1 Plato, Republic, Bk. II.369-374, VIII.550-556
1
1.2 Plato, Laws, Bk. V.742-745, XI.913-920
12
1.3 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I.4-5, 9-10, V.5
18
1.4 Aristotle, Politics, I.8-11
25
1.5 Cicero, De Officiis (On Duties), I.14, III.15-17
32
1.6 Ovid, “The Myth of King Midas” in Metamorphoses, Bk. XI.81-145
36
1.7 Plutarch “Of the Love of Wealth,” in Moralia
38
1.8 Plutarch, “Life of Lycurgus,” in Parallel Lives, §9-11
46
PART TWO: Religious Traditions
51
2.1 The Bible
51
The Old Testament: Deuteronomy 15:1-11, 23:19-20,
51
Proverbs 11:28, 13:11
The Apocrypha: Sirach 26:29-30, 31:1-11, 38:24-34
53
The New Testament:
54
Matthew 6:19-33, 19:16-20:16, 22:16-22, 25:13-30, John 2:13-16,
Acts 2:42-47, 4:31-35, I Timothy 6:9-10, II Thessalonians 3:7-10
2.2 St. Benedict, ch. 48, “Of Daily Manual Labor,” in The Rule of St. Benedict
59
2.3 Qur’an: Surah 2:261-281, Surah 4:29-40, Surah 9:34-35, Surah 102:1-8
61
2
2.4 Hugh of St. Victor, Didascalicon, Bk. 2, chs. 20 (“Mechanical Arts”)
63
and 23 (“Commerce”)
2.5 Francis of Assisi, “Instances Against Money” in The Lives of St. Francis
65
of Assisi by Thomas of Celano XXXV.65–XXXVIII.68
2.6 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae Q. 66 Art. 1-2, Q. 77
68
Art. 1-4
2.7 Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, ch. 5,
80
§1-2, 5-6, 8-9, 14
PART THREE: Renaissance and Reformation
93
3.1 Benedetto Cotrugli, Treatise on Merchandise, bk. 3
93
3.2 Thomas More, Utopia, final pages
111
3.3 Martin Luther, “On Trading and Usury”
115
PART FOUR: The Seventeenth Century
125
4.1 Hugo Grotius—The Rights of War and Peace, I: v-xi
125
4.2 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 13
127
4.3 Pieter De la Court, Political Maxims of the State of Holland, chs. 1, 14-15
131
4.4 John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government, ch. 5, “Of Property”
139
PART FIVE: The Eighteenth Century
151
5.1 Bernard Mandeville, “The Grumbling Hive,” in Fable of the Bees
151
5.2 Voltaire, “Presbyterianism” and “Commerce” in Philosophical Letters
161
3
5.3 Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, XX.1-2
164
5.4 David Hume, “Of Commerce,” in Political Discourses
165
5.5 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality
175
Among Men, pt. 2
5.6 Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, V.2.7-16
185
5.7 Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth
192
of Nations, I.ii
PART SIX: The Nineteenth Century
195
6.1 Benjamin Constant, “On Ancient and Modern Liberty Compared”
195
6.2 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 2, bk. 2, pt. 2,
202
chs. 2, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14
6.3 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property?, selections
216
6.4 Karl Marx, “Alienated (or ‘Estranged’) Labor” in Economic and
225
Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
6.5 Frederic Bastiat, The Law, selections
236
6.6 Henry Thoreau, “Economy” in Walden
241
6.7 Samuel Smiles, Self Help ch. 1
245
6.8 William Graham Sumner, “What Social Classes Owe Each Other”
249
6.9 Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth”
255
6.10 Pope Leo XIII, “Rerum Novarum,” paras. 1-15, 19-20 34-38
265
PART SEVEN: The Twentieth Century
275
4
7.1 Georg Simmel, “Individual Freedom” in The Philosophy of Money, ch. 4
275
7.2 Max Weber, “The Spirit of Capitalism” in The Protestant Ethic and the
285
Spirit of Capitalism
7.3 Marcel Mauss, “Moral Conclusions” in The Gift
289
7.4 John Maynard Keynes, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren”
295
7.5 Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism: The Classical Tradition, ch. 1
300
7.6 Ayn Rand, “The Meaning of Money” in Atlas Shrugged, pt. II, ch. 2
307
7.7 Friedrich von Hayek, “The Moral Element in Free Enterprise”
312
7.8 Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase
320
its Profits,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 13, 1970
7.9 John Rawls, “The Concept of Justice in Political Economy,” in A Theory
327
of Justice, ch. 5, §41
7.10 Robert Nozick, “Distributive Justice,” in Anarchy, State, and Utopia,
339
pt. II, ch. 7
7.11 Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, pt. 1, ch. 1.
342
7.12 Irving Kristol, “When Virtue Loses All Her Loveliness,” in Two Cheers
346
for Capitalism
Index
353
About the Editors
363
5