Abstract
In his published work, Sraffa did not investigate the economic role of specific ethical considerations, the ethical role of economics or the ethical significance of economic prudence. He is reported to have possessed a strong moral sense, yet as with many economists, to also have had a distaste for ‘moralizing’. However, it would be quite wrong to think that Sraffa’s formal, condensed, even at times hermetic style allied him even in his distaste for moralizing with those economists whose distaste arose from quite contrary sources. The issue of what ‘moralizers’ are doing and why they can meet with such hostility will be taken up in Section I. This is followed by a discussion of the ethical significance of economic prudence, that is, of the orientation to the world which it expresses (Section II). Section III examines the exception Sraffa takes to Hayek’s conception of money in his review of Prices & Production; and Section IV concludes on the ethical significance of money.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Aspromourgos, T., & Groenewegen, P. (1999), ‘The notion of the subsistence wage in pre-Smithian classical political economy: Some reflections inspired by the surplus approach’. 181–203, in Value, Distribution and Capital: Essays in honour of Pierangelo Garegnani, (eds.) Mongiovi, G., & Petri, F., Routledge, London & New York.
Austin, J. L., How to Do Things with Words (The William James Lectures Delivered in Harvard University in 1955). Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Ayer, A., (1946), Languiage, Truth and Logic, Gollancz, London, (2nd ed., orig. pub. 1936).
Brennan, G. and Pettit, P (1993), ‘Hands Invisible and Intangible’, Synthese 94, 191–225.
Broome, J., (1991), ‘Utility’, Economics Sc Philosophy, 7, 1–12.
Chiodi, G. & Edwards, P, ‘Economics, Ethics, Commodities, Alienation and the Market-Reflections on Issues Raised by Titmuss’, Quaderno di Ricerca n. 5, 2006.
Denis, A., (2001), Collective & Individual Rationality: Some Episodes in the History of Economic Thought, Phd thesis, City University, London, December 2001.
De Vos, G. & Wagatsuma, H. (1972), Japan’s Invisible Race: Caste in Culture and Personality, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, (revised edition).
Douglas, M. & Isherwood, B. (1996), The World of Goods: towards an anthropology of consumption, Routledge, London & New York.
Edwards, P & Chiodi, G., (1998), ‘Money & Value: Simmel’s Lost Contribution to Economic Theory’, in Memory, History & Critique: European Identity at the Millenium, MIT Press.
Edwards, P., (2001), ‘Violence’, in The Encyclopaedia of Death & Dying, (eds.) Howie, G., & Leaman, O., Routledge, London.
Emmet, D. (1994), The Role of the Unrealisable: A Study in Regulative Ideals, The Macmillan Press, London.
Finley, M. (1977), ‘Aristotle & Economic Analysis’, in Barnes, J., Schofield, M., and Sorabji, R., eds., Articles on Aristotle: 2 Ethics & Politics, Duckworth, London.
Foley, D. (1987), ‘Money in Economic Activity’, The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Vol. III, eds. Eatwell, J., Milligan, M., & Newman, R, Macmillan, London.
Furbank, P., Unholy Pleasure: The Idea of Social Class, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Glass, J.E. (2005), ‘Visceral Verstehen’, Electronic Journal of Sociology, ISSN: 1198 3655.
Hawthorn, G.P. (1987), The Standard of Living, The Tanner Lectures, Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1985, Cambridge, Cambridge U P.
Heilbron, J., (1998), ‘French Moralists and the Anthropology of the Modern Era: On the Genesis of the Notions of ‘Interest’ and ‘Commercial Society’’, 77–106, in The Rise of the Social Sciences and the Foundation of Modernity, (eds.) Heilbron, J. et al., Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.
Hicks, J. (1965), A Revision of Demand Theory, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Hirschman, A., (1978), The Passions & The Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Hirschman, A., (1992), Rival Views of Market Society and Other Recent Essays, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Holmes, S (1990), ‘The Secret History of Self-Interest’, chap 17: 267–86, 337–45 of Mansbridge, J (1990), Beyond Self-Interest, Chicago: IL, University of Chicago Press.
Hume, D., (1963), Essays: Moral, Political & Literary, Oxford University Press, The World’s Classics, Oxford, (orig. pub. 1741 and 1742).
Luper, S. (1996), Invulnerability: On Securing Happiness, Open Court, Chicago & La Salle, Illinois.
Maclntyre, A., (1971), Against the Self-images of the Age: Essays on Ideology & Philosophy, Duckworth, London.
Parry, J. and Bloch, M., eds., Money & The Morality of Exchange, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Pitt-Rivers, J., (1966), ‘Honour & Social Status’, in Peristiany, J., (ed.), Honour & Shame: the Values of Mediterranean Society, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Robson, J. M., (ed.), Essays on Politics and Society, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1977.
Rothschild, E., (2001), Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet and the Enlightenment, Harvard, Cambridge, MA, and London.
Simmel, G. (1990), The Philosophy of Money, ed. By Frisby, D., and translated by Bottomore, T., and Frisby, D., Routledge, London, (second enlarged edition).
Searle, J. (1969), Speech Acts, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Smith, A., (1991), The Wealth of Nations, Books I-IV, ed. Raphael, D., Everyman’s Library, London.
Stabile, D., (1997), ‘Adam Smith and the Natural Wage: Sympathy, Subsistence and Social Distance, Review of Social Economy, Vol. LV, 3, Fall 1997.
Sraffa, P., ‘Dr Hayek on Money and Capital’, The Economic Journal, March 1932.
Vehlen, T, (1925), The Theory of the Leisure Class, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London.
Weber, M., The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, ed with an Introduction by Talcott Parsons, Free Press, New York & London, 1964.
Weber, M., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed & intro, Gerth, H., & Wright Mills, C., Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1970.
Williams, B., ‘The Standard of Living: Interests and Capabilities’, 94–102, in Hawthorn, G. (1987).
Williams, B., Morality: An Introduction to Ethics, Harper Torchbooks, New York and London, 1972.
Williams, B. (2005), In The Beginning was the Deed: Realism & Moralism in Political Argument, selected, edited & with an introduction by Hawthorn, G., Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford.
Wittgenstein, L., Philosophical Investigations, trans. Anscombe, G., Oxford, Blackwell, 1972, (first published 1953).
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2008 Peter Edwards
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Edwards, P. (2008). Sraffa: Notes on Moralizing, Money, and Economic Prudence. In: Chiodi, G., Ditta, L. (eds) Sraffa or An Alternative Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230375338_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230375338_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-28514-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37533-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)