Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- The Moral Ecology of Markets
- 1 Thinking Ethically About Economic Life
- PART I SELF-INTEREST, MORALITY, AND THE PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC LIFE
- 2 De-Moralized Economic Discourse About Markets
- 3 The Moral Defense of Self-Interest and Markets
- 4 The Moral Critique of Self-Interest and Markets
- 5 The Four Problems of Economic Life
- PART II THE MORAL ECOLOGY OF MARKETS
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - The Moral Defense of Self-Interest and Markets
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- The Moral Ecology of Markets
- 1 Thinking Ethically About Economic Life
- PART I SELF-INTEREST, MORALITY, AND THE PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC LIFE
- 2 De-Moralized Economic Discourse About Markets
- 3 The Moral Defense of Self-Interest and Markets
- 4 The Moral Critique of Self-Interest and Markets
- 5 The Four Problems of Economic Life
- PART II THE MORAL ECOLOGY OF MARKETS
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
“That was our plan. It was based on the principle of selflessness. It required men to be motivated, not by personal gain, but by love for their brothers.”
Dagney heard a cold, implacable voice saying somewhere within her: Remember it – remember it well – it is not often that one can see pure evil – look at it – remember – and some day you'll find the words to name its essence …
Ayn Rand's capitalist utopian novel, Atlas Shrugged, enshrines self-interest and condemns the brotherly love recommended above by Gerald Starnes, one of several hapless businessmen encountered by the novel's heroine, Dagney Taggart.
The villains of Rand's novel are unscrupulous and lazy captains of industry who inherited control over wealth from their hardworking fathers. These laggards then either squandered their fortunes in misplaced concern for the common good or preserved them by manipulating the government to squelch the competitive excellence of the true economic heroes of the day.
Written in the 1950s, Rand's fictional account endorsed libertarian capitalism at the height of the Cold War. Forty years later, the Cold War came to an abrupt end with the fall of the Soviet Union and the transformation of Eastern Europe, leaving defenders of capitalism with a heady self-confidence unprecedented in the history of markets. One commentator even proclaimed, “We are all capitalist now.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Moral Ecology of MarketsAssessing Claims about Markets and Justice, pp. 34 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006