Setting the Stage
Setting the Stage
The Plenary Session
This chapter stages a group discussion with fifteen participants from all periods of history. A facilitator moderates the conversation, but the content of the session uses the words of the participants as quoted from their sources. Some involved are Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Jeremy Bentham, Alfred Marshall, J. S. Mill, Thorstein Veblen, J. M. Keynes, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and Amartya Sen. The topics cover the nature of persons, whether the social order is mechanistic or engineered by human ingenuity, what role morals play in economic analysis, and the tension between individualism and community in social life. While it is recognized that history cannot be compressed into one context, the dialogue shows the various perspectives on common issues. Each participant appears in later chapters in his proper context.
Keywords: human nature, adam smith, jeremy bentham, milton friedman, karl marx
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