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Bourgeois Virtue and the History of P and S

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Deirdre N. McCloskey
Deirdre N. McCloskey
Affiliation:
Tinbergen Distinguished Professor, Erasmus University of Rotterdam and John F. Murray Professor of Economics, Professor of History, and Director of the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry, University of Iowa, Department of Economics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52246.
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Abstract

Since the triumph of a business culture a century and half ago the businessman has been scorned, and so the phrase “bourgeois virtue” sounds like an oxymoron. Economists since Bentham have believed that anyway virtue is beside the point: what matters for explanation is Prudence. But this is false in many circumstances, even strictly economic circumstances. An economic history that insists on Prudence Alone is misspecified, and will produce biased coefficients. And it will not face candidly the central task of economic history, an apology for or a criticism of a bourgeois society.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , June 1998 , pp. 297 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1998

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