MARKET SOCIETY’S MORAL SUBJECTS: INTEREST, SENTIMENT, PROPERTY

Abstract

My comments address two well-known texts. One is Crawford Macpherson’s portrait of ‘possessive individualism’ in which he suggests that ruthless competition for power through possessions is the distinctive feature of a market society which first took shape in seventeenth century England. The other is Adam Smith’s account of moral sentiment which revolves around a creative tension between human sympathy and ‘betterment’ or ‘self love.’ The significant divergence in their views invites further analysis - especially in the light of recent comparable work on neoliberalism.