| Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy of Economic Science Contributor(s): Force, Pierre (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521830605 ISBN-13: 9780521830607 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $114.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: September 2003 Annotation: Pierre Force studies the history of the concept of self-interest to understand its meaning by the time that Adam Smith used it as an axiom in The Wealth of Nations. He demonstrates that Smith, unlike many of his predecessors and contemporaries, never endorsed the idea that self-interest is the motivation behind all human action, although the "selfish hypothesis" did have a place in his doctrine. This book provides insight on classic puzzles of economic theory and is a major work from an outstanding scholar. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Business & Economics | Economics - Theory |
| Dewey: 330.15 |
| LCCN: 2003043590 |
| Series: Ideas in Context |
| Physical Information: 0.91" H x 6.02" W x 9.16" (1.33 lbs) 298 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Pierre Force studies the history of the concept of self-interest to understand its meaning by the time that Adam Smith used it as an axiom in The Wealth of Nations. He demonstrates that Smith, unlike many of his predecessors and contemporaries, never endorsed the idea that self-interest is the motivation behind all human action, although the selfish hypothesis did have a place in his doctrine. This book provides insight on classic puzzles of economic theory and is a major work from an outstanding scholar. |
Contributor Bio(s): Force, Pierre: - Pierre Force received his academic training in France, where he was a fellow of the Ecole normale superieure. He took his BA (1979), doctorate (1987), and habilitation (1994) at the Sorbonne. He first came to the United States in 1984 as a lecturer at Yale University, and he joined the Columbia faculty in 1987. His field of research is seventeenth and eighteenth-century intellectual history. He is the author of Le Probleme hermeneutique chez Pascal (Paris: Vrin, 1989), Moliere ou Le Prix des choses (Paris: Nathan, 1994), and Self-Interest before Adam Smith (Cambridge University Press, 2003). |