adam smith flash cards

The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour

Increases each worker’s dexterity and productivity

It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people

without the assistance and cooperation of many thousands, the  very meanest person in a civilized country could not be provided, even according to what we very falsely imagine, the easy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated

Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. 

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages

Among men…the most dissimilar geniuses are of use to one another; the different produces of their respective talents, by the general disposition to truck, barter, and exchange, being brought, as it were, into a common stock, where every man may purchase whatever part of the produce of other men's talents he has occasion for. 

The second point is that the satisfaction of the first need (the action of satisfying, and the instrument of satisfaction which has been acquired) leads to new needs…

The third circumstance which, from the very outset, enters into historical development, is that men, who daily remake their own life, begin to make other men, to propagate their kind: the relation between man and woman, parents and children, the family

The first historical act is thus the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the production of material life itself. And indeed this is an historical act, a fundamental condition of all history, which today, as thousands of years ago, must daily and hourly be fulfilled merely in order to sustain human life

It follows from this that a certain mode of production, or industrial stage, is always combined with a certain mode of co-operation, or social stage

a definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite form of expressing their life, a definite mode of life on their part. As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production

The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is at first directly interwoven with the material activity and the material intercourse of men, the language of real life…. The same applies to mental production as expressed in the language of politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc., of a people

Men are the producers of their conceptions, ideas, etc. – real, active men, as they are conditioned by a definite development of their productive forces and of the intercourse corresponding to these, up to its furthest forms.

How far the productive forces of a nation are developed is shown most manifestly by the degree to which the division of labour has been carried.

[T]he division of labour implies the contradiction between the interest of the separate individual or the individual family and the communal interest of all individuals who have intercourse with one another.

Disability affects everyone at one point or another.

[T]he capabilities approach feels free to use a political conception of the person that views the person, with Aristotle, as a political and social animal, who seeks a good that is social through and through, and who shares complex ends with others, at many levels.  The good of others is not just a constraint on this person’s pursuit of her own good; it is a part of her good.

We are “needy temporal animals who begin as babies and end, often, in other forms of dependency

We cannot solve the problem of global justice by envisaging international cooperation as a contract for mutual advantage among parties similarly placed in a state of nature.  We can solve them only by thinking of what all human beings require to live a richly human life – a set of basic entitlements for all people – and by developing conception of the purpose of social cooperation that focuses on fellowship as well as self-interes

Some theories, such as Rawls, begin with the design of a fair procedure.  My capabilities approach begins with outcomes:  with a list of entitlements that have to be secured to citizens, if the society in question is a minimally just on

What is lacking in Rawls’s account…is the sense of the animal itself as an agent and a subject, a creature in interaction with whom we live

For Kant [and Rawls] only humanity and rationality are worthy of respect and wonder; the rest of nature is just a set of tools.  The capabilities approach judges instead, with the biologist Aristotle…that there is something wonderful and wonder-inspiring in all the complex forms of animal life

nI grant that rationality and the capacity to determine one’s own good are, at the very least, useful to being a part of a moral community.  But I am not sure if either is necessary, and I am still less certain why lacking them disqualifies one from moral parity….

Philosophers have made much of the importance of rational capacities for the exercise of moral judgments and moral actions but…have understated the critical role other capacities play in our moral life

Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.

Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage; and (b) attached to positions and offices open to all.

Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. 

Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason, justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others.

–People are rational

–People are mutually disinterested

–People have the capacity for a sense of justice

It seems reasonable and generally acceptable that no one should be advantaged or disadvantaged by natural fortune, or social circumstances in the choice of principles.  It also seems widely agreed that it should be impossible to tailor principles to the circumstances of one’s own case….The aim is to  rule out those principles that it would be rational to propose for acceptance…only if one knew certain things that are irrelevant from the standpoint of justice

Since all are similarly situated and no one is able to design principles of justice to favor his particular condition, the principles of justice are the result of a fair agreement or bargain

Political liberty (the right to vote and to be eligible for public office) together with freedom of speech and assembly; liberty of conscience and freedom of thought; freedom of the person along with the right to hold (personal) property; and freedom from arbitrary arrest and seizure as defined by the concept of the rule of law 

Globalizing Rawls

–Grand universalism

–Nationalistic particularism

–Sen’s alternative:  “plural affiliation”

The starting point of this approach…can be the recognition of the fact that we all have multiple identities, and that each of these identities can yield concerns and demands that can significantly supplement, or seriously compete with, other concerns and demands arising from other identities.

Individuals live and operate in a world of institutions, many of which operate across borders.  Our opportunities and our prospects depend crucially on what institutions exist and how they function.

Even though different commentators have chosen to focus on particular institutions (such as the market, the democratic system, the media or the public distribution system), we have to consider them all to be able to see what they can do, individually or jointly. Many of these institutions – not just the market mechanism – cut vigorously across national boundaries and do not operate through national polities. 

Aggregative model:

Deliberative model:

In the aggregative model of democracy, Voting – the expressing of preferences among a list of candidates or referendum choices – is the primary political act  Participants arrive at a decision not by which proposals the collective agrees are supported by the best reason 

Inclusion:  a democratic decision is normatively legitimate only if all those affected by it are included in the process of discussion and decision-making

Reasonableness:  [W]hat makes [reasonable people] reasonable is their willingness to listen to others who want to explain to them why their ideas are incorrect or inappropriate….Since reasonable people often disagree about what proposals, actions, groundings, and narratives are rational irrational, judging too quickly is itself often a symptom of reasonableness

To be reasonable is to be willing to change our opinions or preferences because others persuade us that our initial opinions or preferences…are incorrect or inappropriate….A reasonable respectful process of deliberation exhibits deliberative uptake; when some speak, others acknowledge the expression in ways that continue the engagement

Publicity: requires participants to express themselves in ways accountable to all those plural others 

two general conditions of injustice:  oppression, institutional constraint on self-development, and domination, institutional constraint on self-determination.

I define social justice…as the institutional conditions for promoting self-development and self-determination of a society’s members

NOT absolute abundance

A man’s property - Anything that it is lawful for him and only him to use. What rule do we have for picking out these objects? Here we must have resort to statutes, customs, precedents, analogies, and a hundred other things—some of them constant and inflexible, others variable and arbitrary. But what they are all rooted in is the interests and happiness of human society.

All birds of the same species build their nests alike at every time and in every country; that’s the force of instinct at work. Men build their houses differently at different times and in different places; that shows the influence of reason and custom.