Self-love and sociability: the ‘rudiments of commerce’ in the state of nature

Istvan Hont’s classic work on the theoretical links between the seventeenth-century natural jurists Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf and the eighteenth-century Scottish political economists remains a popular trope among intellectual and economic historians of various stamps. Despite this, a common criticism levelled at Hont remains his relative lack of engagement with the relationship between religion and economics in the early modern period. This paper challenges this aspect of Hont’s narrative by drawing attention to an alternative, albeit complementary, assessment of the natural jurisprudential heritage of eighteenth-century British political economy. Specifically, the article attempts to map on to Hont’s thesis the Christian Stoic interpretation of Grotius and Pufendorf which has gained greater currency in recent years. In doing so, the paper argues that Grotius and Pufendorf’s contributions to the ‘unsocial sociability’ debate do not necessarily lead directly to the Scottish school of political economists, as is commonly assumed. Instead, it contends that a reconsideration of Grotius and Pufendorf as neo-Stoic theorists, particularly via scrutiny of their respective adaptations of the traditional Stoic theory of oikeiosis, steers us towards the heart of the early English ‘clerical’ Enlightenment

The Critique to Political Economy in 19th Century: Pierre Joseph Proudhon”, Università degli Studi di Verona, 16-19 Settembre 2009.

Risultato del Workshop di Saragozza, ha messo a fuoco soprattutto la figura e l'opera di Proudhon. Gli atti costituiranno il secondo volume della riflessione su Utopian Tought and Political Economy (1789.1848) e saranno pubblicati in Spagna dalla casa editrice Ferdinando el Catolic

An 'exception culturelle'? French sensationist political economy and the shaping of public economics

This paper examines some ideas developed in the field of public economics by French Sensationist political economists, from Turgot and Condorcet to the young Jean-Baptiste Say. An ideal-typical account of their position is based on the fact that issues raised by public expenditure and revenue are not dealt with independently. Instead, a strong link between the two sides of the budget is emphasized, an approach arising out of political considerations concerning human rights and equity. Following on from this they develop a theory of public expenditure based on public goods�-�national and local�-�and externalities, and a theory of taxation culminating in a justification of progressive taxation. The central section of the paper forms a kind of pivotal point in the analysis, showing how the above political and ethical requirements of the theory lead to the first estimation of the optimal amount of public expenditure and revenue�-�involving an equilibrium at the margin.History of public economics, Turgot, Condorcet, Roederer, Say, public goods, externalities, equity in taxation, progressive taxation, optimal amount of public expenditure and revenue, equilibrium at the margin,