Re:Economics education can shift people in a selfish direction?
by dang on Sunday August 31, 2014 @03:32PM
(#8250156)
No, the author does not completely fail to understand the quote. He's casting doubt on the reduction of co-operation to self-interest suggested by Smith—or rather by a simplistic interpretation of Smith—because (the claim goes) there is evidence that studying economics makes people less co-operative. The quote is apropos and there's nothing embarrassing about it.
What's embarrassing are instant middlebrow dismissals of entire research programs because of ideological and tribal identification.
I'm not defending the article's claims and have no idea if they're right, but HN threads can be and need to be better than this.
Re:Economics education can shift people in a selfish direction?
by baddox on Sunday August 31, 2014 @04:55PM
(#8250350)
If you're implying that I am identifying myself with some tribe and therefore immediately dismissing the entire research program, I disagree and regret giving that impression. If this is your impression, I am curious what about my comment gave you that impression, because I genuinely do not see anything in my comment that hints at a specific ideology or tribe, or an instant middlebrow dismissal of an entire research program. I am not a "Smithian" or whatever tribe is being hinted at here, and I did not dismiss the entire research program. I only pointed out what I think is a misrepresentation of that well-known Adam Smith quote.
I find the research quite interesting, although I don't believe that we can conclude anything about the validity of any belief based on attributes of the people espousing the belief. That's the ad hominem fallacy.
Re:Economics education can shift people in a selfish direction?
by thelettere on Sunday August 31, 2014 @03:30PM
(#8250148)
Just because he espoused capitalism does not mean he was not aware of its weaknesses or did not wish for ways to moderate its excesses.
He spoke about it quite often in Wealth of Nations, and took his concerns much farther in "Moral Sentiments" - which was about the role of morality in moderating this selfishness.
Re:Economics education can shift people in a selfish direction?
by lambda on Sunday August 31, 2014 @03:57PM
(#8250204)
Why do you think the author failed to understand the quote? It's pretty clear that the author understood the implication that self-interest causes cooperation, but is pointing out that there are other forces which cause cooperation as well, and that focusing too much on self-interest can diminish these other forces.
> Economists have run with this insight for hundreds of years, and some experts think they’ve run a bit too far. Robert Frank, an economist at Cornell, believes that his profession is squashing cooperation and generosity.
It's embarrassing that the author directly quoted Smith while completely failing to understand the quote. The point is that self-interest causes cooperation.