The Worldly Philosophers

The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers is a book by Robert L. Heilbroner. The book originally served as Heilbroner's doctoral thesis in 1953. It has sold more than four million copies. (The only other book on the same subject to sell more copies is Paul Samuelson's Economics.) Heilbroner begins chapter ii by describing the paradoxicalness and precariousness of human behavior. Self-centeredness, he writes, characterizes human life along with cooperation. The result is what he calls a "struggle" (p. 18). In "primitve" (p. 19) societies such as that of the Eskimos, the struggle does not pose a problem: Individuals behave under strong pressure to act in the interest of survival. He contrasts those societies with "advanced" or "modern" ones, in which "this tangible pressure of the environment, or this web of social obligation, is lacking" (p. 19). In those societies, fewer incentives exist for individuals to act for the purpose of survival. The result is that "society's existence hangs by a hair" (p. 19). Because of modern society's complexity, a small change could lead to social disarray. (One should note that he cautiously uses the words "disorganized" and "breakdown", rather than stronger words like "collapse" or "fail", to describe a society that falls victim to those ills.)

Related Topics:
Book - Robert L. Heilbroner - Doctoral thesis - 1953 - Sold - Paul Samuelson - Economics - Societies - Eskimo - Purpose

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Heilbroner describes three ways in which societies have dealt with such precariousness: tradition, authoritarianism, and market systems. The former two are the "old" ways, but the latter one is nothing less, according to Heilbroner, than a modern revolution. (He even goes on to say this revolution was fundamentally more profound that the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Russian revolution of 1917.)

Related Topics:
Tradition - Authoritarianism - Market system - American Revolution - French Revolution - Russian revolution of 1917

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