Sublime

Smith’s view was that the most just mechanism for allocating resources from the point of view of the individual was one that enabled people to pursue their own self-interest and make their own choices. After all, people are usually the best judges of their own happiness. At the same time, the best allocation of resources for society as a whole was

Like nations, individuals have to find a functional balance between order (skills) and adaptability (creativity).

DOWN WITH THE MAN (AND MADISON AVENUE): SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE HEDONIC TREADMILL

Whatever your exact view of the Solow and increasing returns models, the logic of the increasing returns model will likely carry significant weight in our final evaluation. In many cases our best answer, given current knowledge, is that a given cost brings some probability of an ongoing growth effect (as in the increasing returns model) and some pr

Nudge.

twenty-first-century science is undermining the foundations of the liberal order.

“An important place to begin in philosophy is this: a clear perception of one’s own ruling principle.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES

However, it may well be that New York slum-dwellers and Kalahari hunter-gatherers experience mental states which we will never discover by forcing Harvard psychology students to answer long questionnaires

Here again, the naturalistic, human-centered worldview of the authors is on display. It’s clear as the authors discuss humanity that they see human logic as (nearly) ultimate. They also seem to value the material aspects of human existence as supreme.