Street Porter and the Philosopher: Conversations on Analytical Egalitarianism

446 Pages·2009·1.799 MB·English

by  Levy, David M.;Peart, Sandra J

The Street Porter and the Philosopher

The Street Porter and the Philosopher
Edited by Sandra J.Peart and David M.Levy
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS • Ann Arbor
Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2008
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No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The street porter and the philosopher : conversations on analytical
egalitarianism / edited by Sandra J. Peart and David M. Levy.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-472-11644-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-472-11644-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Equality. I. Peart, Sandra. II. Levy, David M., 1944–
JC575.S77 2008
320.01'1—dc22 2008008260
ISBN-13: 978-0-472-02414-8 (electronic)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 • Introduction: The Street Porter and the Philosopher
Contextualized Sandra J. Peart and David M. Levy 1
PART1 • Politics,Markets,and Equality
2 • Politics as Exchange or Politics as Power: Two Views of
Government James M. Buchanan and Warren J. Samuels 15
3 • The Theory of Economic Policy in British Classical Political
Economy: A Sympathetic Reading
David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart 41
4 • Economic Organization, Distribution, and the Equality
Issue: The Marx-Engels Perspective Samuel Hollander 64
5 • Robust Analytical Egalitarianism: Worst-Case Political
Economy and the Socialist Calculation Debate
Eric Crampton and Andrew Farrant 108
PART2 • Smithian Themes
6 • Sacred Economics Deirdre McCloskey 135
7 • The Origins of Das Adam Smith Problem and Our
Understanding of Sympathy Leonidas Montes 158
8 • Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand Warren J. Samuels 179
9 • In Medio Stat Virtus: An Alternative View of Usury in
Adam Smith’s Thinking Maria Pia Paganelli 202
10 • The Measure of Real Price: Adam Smith’s Science
of Equity Eric Schliesser 228
vi • Contents
PART3 • The Role of the Expert
11 • Attitudes toward Race, Hierarchy, and Transformation in the
Nineteenth Century: The Role of the Expert
Sandra J. Peart and David M. Levy 239
12 • Frank Knight, Worst-Case Theorizing, and Economic
Planning: Socialism as Monopoly Politics
Andrew Farrant 261
13 • On Hayek’s Road to Serfdom: Sixty Years Later
M. Ali Khan 269
14 • Hiring a Foreign Expert: Chile in the Nineteenth Century
Juan Pablo Couyoumdjian 289
PART4 • Literature,Biology,and Economics
15 • Is a Novel a Model? Tyler Cowen 319
16 • Denying Human Homogeneity: Eugenics and the
Making of Postclassical Economics
Sandra J. Peart and David M. Levy 338
17 • More Merciful and Not Less Effective: Eugenics and
American Economics in the Progressive Era
Thomas C. Leonard 358
18 • Evolution and Human Behavior Gordon Tullock 383
PART5 • The Buchanan-Rawls Correspondence
19 • Introduction and Correspondence
David M.Levy and Sandra J. Peart 397
The Texts 405
Contributors 417
Index 421
Acknowledgments
The Summer Institute for the Preservation of the History of Economics
owes its existence to our belief that economists bene‹t from the ability
to read the texts of past economists. The classical liberal tradition itself
cannot be understood without knowledge of the writings of the great
British classical liberal economists. David Kennedy, then President of
the Earhart Foundation, suggested that we apply to the Foundation for a
grant to support a meeting in the summer of 2000. The generosity of the
Earhart Foundation continues to help support the Summer Institute. We
are particularly grateful for a grant that helped make this book possible.
During the ‹rst ‹ve years, from which the contributions in the book
are drawn, David Levy received additional ‹nancial support and en-
couragement from the Center for Study of Public Choice and the Depart-
ment of Economics at George Mason. The last years have seen many
changes at the Center. Carol Roberts and Janet Byrd, who were both here
when the Summer Institute began, have passed away. We miss them.
Sandra Peart received summer support from Baldwin-Wallace Col-
lege; her sabbatical in 2004–5, when much of the initial work for the
collection was done, was supported by the Earhart Foundation and the
Mercatus Center.
The conversation between James Buchanan and Warren Samuels
(Chapter 2), and Warren Samuels’s “Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand”
(Chapter 8), were taped during the Summer Institute of 2004 and tran-
scribed by Jo Ann Burgess. Chapter 3, David Levy and Sandra Peart’s
“The Theory of Economic Policy is British Classical Political Economy,”
is reprinted with the permission of Duke University Press from The His-
tory of Political Economy,where it appeared in 2005, volume 37 (Suppl.
1). Chapter 4, Samuel Hollander’s “Economic Organization, Distribution
and the Equality Issue,” is reprinted with the permission of Springer
from The Review of Austrian Economics,where it appeared in 2004, vol-
ume 17 (1).
Chapter 6, “Sacred Economics,” is an early version of Deirdre Mc-
Closkey’s Bourgeois Virtues,reprinted with permission of the University
viii • Acknowledgments
of Chicago Press, where it appeared in 2006. Chapter 9, Maria Pia Pa-
ganelli’s “In Medio Stat Virtus,” is reprinted with the permission of
Duke University Press from The History of Political Economy, where it
appeared in 2003, volume 35 (1). Sandra Peart and David Levy’s “Atti-
tudes Toward Race, Hierarchy and Transformation in the Nineteenth
Century” is reprinted with the permission of the editors of The History
of Economic Thought, where it appeared in 2005, volume 47. Chapter
12, Andrew Farrant’s “Frank Knight, Worst-Case Theorizing, and Eco-
nomic Planning,” is reprinted with the permission of Duke University
Press from The History of Political Economy,where it appeared in 2004,
volume 36 (3). Chapter 16, Sandra Peart and David Levy’s “Denying Hu-
man Homogeneity,” is reprinted with the permission of the Journal of
the History of Economic Thought,where it appeared in 2003, volume 23.
Chapter 17, Thomas Leonard’s “More Merciful and Not Less Effective,”
is reprinted with the permission of Duke University Press from The His-
tory of Political Economy, where it appeared in 2003, volume 35 (4). Gor-
don Tullock’s “Evolution and Human Behavior” is reprinted with the
permission of Springer from the Journal of Bioeconomics, where it ap-
peared in 2002, volume 4 (2). Finally, the letters between James
Buchanan and John Rawls are published with the gracious permission of
James Buchanan and the estate of John Rawls.
For this volume, we have been fortunate to deal with a ‹ne econom-
ics editor at the University of Michigan Press, Jim Reische, who found
helpful reviewers for the manuscript. Sarah Remington assisted with the
production. Marcia La Brenz once again served as senior copyeditor co-
ordinator. The bulk of the proof reading was borne by Michael D.
Thomas. Emily Jane Perry checked the transcription of the Buchanan-
Rawls correspondence with very sharp eyes. Lisa Hill-Corley kept track
of the ‹nances and helped with the permissions.
The Summer Institute takes time. David thanks Nicholas and Milton
for their support and remembers his mother’s. Sandra Peart thanks her
two sons, Nathan and Matthew, and husband Craig, for many weeks
away from home while at the Summer Institute. Nathan and Matthew
enjoyed meeting Daniel Hammond, Steven Medema, and Warren
Samuels over lox and bagels at the Institute breakfast and Summer Insti-
tute barbeques on the lawn of the Buchanan House.
1 • Introduction
The Street Porter and the Philosopher Contextualized
What Is Analytical Egalitarianism?
Analytical egalitarianism is our term for the theoretical system that ab-
stracts from any inherent difference among persons. Here is an example
from within this tradition, a statement that the argument pays no atten-
tion to natural differences.
[A]ssume that these persons have roughly similar needs and in-
terests, or needs and interests in various ways complementary,
so that fruitful cooperation amongst them is possible; and sup-
pose that they are suf‹ciently equal in power and ability to guar-
antee that in normal circumstances none is able to dominate the
others. This condition . . . may seem excessively vague but . . .
there seems no reason for making it more exact here. (171)
We postpone identifying the author in order to spell out why analytical
egalitarianism is a useful organizing principle for economists and
philosophers alike.
A second, perhaps more familiar, organizing principle for thinking
about theoretical systems is the sort of socio-political-economic egalitar-
ianism that advocates a normative goal of equalizing income ex post. In
order to distinguish this policy-oriented approach from the analytical
approach, we shall refer to this form of egalitarianism in what follows as
practical egalitarianism. It is in the context of such a practical egalitari-
anism that debates over the merits of income transfers from one person
to another by political means are frequently conducted. Those who favor
such income transfers are typically located on the left of the political
spectrum while those who oppose them are generally on the political
right. Because the reading public is frequently familiar with the debates
over practical, but not analytical, egalitarianism, we often confuse one
with the other. And we often think that those who are on the left of the
political spectrum can have little or nothing in common with those on
the political right. A major theme that emerged from the research pre-
sented at the Summer Institute for the Preservation of the History of Eco-
nomics during its early years, however, has been that in point of fact
those on the left and right may share a deep commitment to analytical