The Moral Economists

Rogan reconstructs a line of anti-capitalist argument that was not Marxist. R. H. Tawney, Karl Polanyi and E. P. Thompson each objected to industrial capitalism on moral rather than materialist grounds — that it dissolved the obligations, customs and forms of solidarity people actually live by — and each reached for a Christian or broadly humanist vocabulary to say what was being lost. Rogan’s larger claim concerns the aftermath: when those religious and humanist premises fell away, the critique lost its force, leaving the left with utilitarian arguments about distribution that have no way of saying what a market does to a person.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the curriculum’s capitalism, morality and culture section — the part of the list that treats the market as a moral question rather than a technical one, and this is the entry that supplies the strongest version of the other side’s case.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Capitalism, Morality, and Culture. The full 211-entry transcription is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Capitalism — the object of the critique being reconstructed.
• Morality — the ground on which these three argued.
• Christianity — the vocabulary Rogan says the critique lost.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.