tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post115306646177683097..comments2024-03-28T08:57:53.180+00:00Comments on Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart: Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Charles DarwinLarry Arnharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-1153230735082308212006-07-18T14:52:00.000+01:002006-07-18T14:52:00.000+01:00Hi Mr Harnhart,I really appreciate this blog. I al...Hi Mr Harnhart,<BR/><BR/>I really appreciate this blog. I also have read many of your books with great interest as I judge crucial your line of though to give public awareness of conservative values as a logical result of Natural Sciences. <BR/><BR/>A different source of conservative and libertarian thinking apart from Burke, Smith and Darwin is what is usually called "the Austrian School of Economics" that, in fact, was focused on more than strict economics but in the whole nature of human action. <BR/><BR/>I know your appreciation of Hayek, but the Austrian school start two generations before, with Carl Menger and even before; This school, you know, is deeply related with the Aristotelian philosophy. This Aristotelian tradition of thinking is surely tied to the catholic scholastics since Saint Thomas Aquinas. There are many scholastics that anticipate, at the XVII century, the laws of Austrian school of economy (and, of course, the moral nature of the human beings).<BR/><BR/>There are sharp contrast between the practical spirit, focused on accountability, of the Anglo-Saxon thinking at the time of Adam Smith, for one side, against the thinking based of first principles of the Austrian school. A very important example is the Austrian “subjective theory of value” (the price depends on the subjective appreciation of the good by the consumer) contrary to the Smith, Ricardo (and Marx) theory of objective price based on the quantity of labour spent on creating the good.<BR/><BR/>The labor theory of value open the door for state planning while the subjective theory of value keep the decisions of economy in the hands of every unique individual. This erroneous depart from common sense, for the shake of calculation, by the English school paved the way to nihilistic Utilitarism, Fabian Socialism as well as to communism trough Marx, that was deeply influenced by David Ricardo, another influent English economist. <BR/><BR/>No doubt the English thinkers were mainstream for conservative and libertarian ideas, but at the end, some flaws in their economic theory went to produce a less free society than expected by the original thinkers. <BR/><BR/>Maybe this adds nothing to the subject, but for me illustrates how critical the philosophical roots are.Memetic Warriorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04075754592464935296noreply@blogger.com