Process
Status Items Highlights Done See section below Claims None Questions None Output None
Highlights
Time 0:14:29
- The scientific project emerged within the context of 17th-century mercantile capitalism.
- Economic interests significantly influence how we interpret religious and cultural traditions. Transcript: Speaker 2 And why I think that 17th century was so important and that the context in which the scientific project emerges was mercantile capitalism. And I guess I’m a
Time 0:14:30
- The rise of mercantile capitalism in the 17th century influenced the view that humans should have complete mastery and exploitation of nature.
- This removal of taboos and limitations on how we treat the land was essential for capitalism’s takeoff. Transcript: Speaker 2 I think that 17th century was so important and that the context in which the scientific project emerges was mercantile capitalism. And I guess I’m a bit of a historical materialist. I do think that economics has a huge sway and that economic interests inform the way that religious and cultural traditions are read. So this idea that humans have should have a free hand and that they should aspire complete mastery and exploitation, was an absolute necessity for the take -off of capitalism. You can’t have any taboos or limitations on how you treat the land. If your economy depends upon the exploitation of what, hey, we’re going to call resources.
Time 0:17:17
- During the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution, a new “permission structure” emerged, justifying exploitative wealth-building.
- This served as a green light for projects that would have been difficult to justify under previous cultural values. Transcript: Speaker 2 What we’re seeing through the Renaissance and especially the Scientific Revolution is a new permission structure, a permission slip. Speaker 1 These thinkers, people like Descartes, Bacon and Locke, provided people, those with the power and the wealth to make stuff happen, the go -ahead for their exploitative wealth -building Projects, a green light for all of this that would have been harder to find in the prevailing values of European culture a few centuries before. Speaker 2 Just as the invention of a racial hierarchy served as justification for the enslavement and colonization of people labeled inferior.
Time 0:19:03
- Before the Reformation, pursuing wealth was sinful.
- Protestant reformers like John Calvin introduced more tolerant views of money-making, linking it to the “Protestant work ethic.” Transcript: Speaker 1 Medieval theologians like Thomas Aquinas took those scriptures seriously and literally. Greed is a sin against God, Aquinas wrote. But Protestant reformers, notably John Calvin in the 16th century, introduced, let’s say, more tolerant views toward money -making. Speaker 2 Indeed, Calvin is known for promoting what came to be called the Protestant work ethic. Work hard,
Time 0:20:35
- Economic forces drive societal change, influencing ethical frameworks and religious beliefs.
- People adapt their morals and faith to align with economic realities. Transcript: Speaker 2 All of this seems to support Kate Rigby’s thesis that economic forces really drive what happens in society, and people tend to adjust their ethical frameworks and even their religious Beliefs to align with the economic reality.
Time 0:24:10
- It’s tempting to link capitalism to the Enlightenment’s positive ideals, making capitalism seem morally sound.
- However, the Enlightenment also had a dark side intertwined with slavery and exclusivity, complicating this association. Transcript: Speaker 1 Next, she says, before you can talk about its relationship to capitalism, you need to clarify what you mean by the Enlightenment. Just the good parts? Speaker 3 Rationality, universalism, human rights, freedom from superstition, good government, right? These are all the kind of connotations with the Enlightenment. And if we associate capitalism with the Enlightenment, somehow capitalism seems like morally okay. Speaker 1 On the other hand, Lou says there is the Enlightenment’s dark side. Speaker 3 The Enlightenment also was entangled with slavery and was incredibly exclusive and many of the figureheads of the Enlightenment believed that rationality and freedom of superstition And progress was available only
Time 0:30:45
- Spinoza rejected Descartes’ idea that science aims to make humans masters of nature.
- He believed humans are part of nature, subject to its laws, not separate from it. Transcript: Speaker 1 Spinoza, like Descartes, promoted the pursuit of knowledge about the world. But crucially, Spinoza rejected Descartes’ notion that the purpose of science was to make humans the masters and possessors of nature. Speaker 4 No, in fact, that kind of mastery over nature would be a delusion that we suffer. He’s very clear. Somebody like Descartes treats a human being and he uses the phrase a dominion within a dominion, that is, we are kingdoms unto ourselves. We stand outside the laws of nature and our goal is to be able to make use of nature and control it in ways that dominion implies. For Spinoza, we are a part of nature and subject to everything within nature.
Time 0:31:30
- For Spinoza, humans are part of nature and subject to its laws, unlike Descartes’ view of humans as masters of nature.
- The best society, according to Spinoza, cares for everyone’s needs. Transcript: Speaker 4 For Spinoza, we are a part of nature and subject to everything within nature. Nothing stands outside of nature. Speaker 1 Nothing stands outside of nature. Of course, the indigenous cultures that we all descend from once knew that truth. And some, unlike the modern West, never lost sight of it. Spinoza expressed another value that some non -Western cultures held onto, that the best society to live in is one that cares for the needs of everyone. Man, I say, can wish for nothing more helpful to the preservation of his being than that all should so agree that the minds and bodies of all would compose, as it were, one mind and one body, Speaker 3 And that all together should seek for themselves the common
Time 0:36:52
- Adam Smith, known for “The Wealth of Nations,” wasn’t primarily focused on economics.
- His first book, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” emphasizes sympathy and rejects the idea of humans being solely self-interested. Transcript: Speaker 1 That first book, published before he started writing The Wealth of Nations, Smith’s opening sentence pretty clearly rejects an idea that would eventually become central to mainstream Economics. The claim that human beings are, first and foremost, self -interested. Speaker 2 How selfish soever man
Time 0:37:29
- Adam Smith believed that both sympathy (concern for others) and self-interest coexist within us, learned through social interaction.
- These impulses aren’t opposing forces but work together, exemplified in buyer-seller exchanges where self-interest intertwines with understanding another’s needs. Transcript: Speaker 1 Smith wrote a lot about sympathy, meaning concern for others, and self -love or selfishness. He said we learn these things by living together in society, and that the two impulses coexist in each of us. This shows up our experiences as buyers and sellers. Speaker 3 Why is it that we can go to the butcher or the baker or the brewer and say, give me some beer, give me a pound of meat? It’s not because we expect them to be nice to us. It’s because it’s in their own self -interest to sell me some meat or sell me some beer or sell me some bread, and it’s in my interest to pay the money that they ask for, to get my beer, my bread, Speaker 1 Or my meat. For Smith, Glory says, our self -interest in these encounters is intertwined with mutual sympathy, an understanding that the other person needs something too. Speaker 3 I can understand if I were the butcher of the brewer of the baker why I would want to sell me some meat and vice versa. So we would misread Smith very quickly to see sympathy and self -interest as oppositional. He sees them as two features of human nature that help explain huge, vast swathes of human cooperation in human society.
Time 0:40:32
- Adam Smith advocated for economic freedom and free markets.
- He wanted markets to be free from mercantilism (the prevailing system in his time), not government regulation as it’s understood today. Transcript: Speaker 1 Smith did call for economic freedom and free markets. But what did he want markets to be free from? Not government regulation of the kind that free marketeers complain about today. Instead, much of the wealth of nations is a full -throated attack on the prevailing economic system in Smith’s time, mercantilism.
Time 0:42:02
- Use government wisely to create well-functioning markets.
- Avoid monopolies, tariffs, and rent-seeking, and promote worker freedom. Transcript: Speaker 1 Wanted national leaders to use government wisely, to create markets that worked. He hated monopolies, tariffs, and what economists call rent -seeking, people taking advantage of monopolies or distorted markets to jack up prices and profits. He also wanted more freedom for workers, the people who had to sell their labor to an employer.
Time 0:42:02
- Use government wisely to create effective markets.
- Avoid monopolies, tariffs, and rent-seeking to ensure fair competition and pricing. Transcript: Speaker 1 Wanted national leaders to use government wisely, to create markets that worked. He hated monopolies, tariffs, and what economists call rent -seeking, people taking advantage of monopolies or distorted markets to jack up prices and profits. He also wanted more freedom for workers, the people who had to sell their labor to an employer. He objected to the arbitrary rules and requirements laid down by groups of artisans or guilds that served to block people, especially people not born into those artisan classes, from Breaking in and competing. Speaker 3 So Smith is saying that free trade is not no restrictions whatsoever, and the government stays out of all kinds of economic regulations. He’s saying that it should be free from these kind of unjust and oppressive restraints that restrict how people can employ their own labor and capital.
Time 0:43:16
- Adam Smith favored capitalism but not unregulated markets.
- He advocated government intervention to balance the power between employers and workers. Transcript: Speaker 1 Had no problem with government putting a thumb on the scale to help working people. He wrote that lawmakers usually sided the ownership class, what Smith called the masters, so any exception to that rule was welcome. Speaker 2 Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate the differences between masters and their workmen, its counselors are always the masters. When the regulation therefore is in favor of the workmen, it is always just inequitable. Speaker 1 He clearly was pro -capitalism, though no one was using that word yet. But to say that Smith believed markets left to themselves were the path to prosperity for all, that’s
Time 0:50:47
- Avoid structuring society around flattened, artificial measurements.
- Remember that reductionist concepts, while sometimes useful (e.g., in science), don’t fully represent reality. Transcript: Speaker 1 About an example or two? Here’s one. Declaring that a dominant measure of a society’s prosperity is the total output of purchased goods and services. Speaker 2 That would be gross domestic product or GDP. Counting every sale the same, whether you’re talking about food or cigarettes. Speaker 1 Or to take another example, deciding that the purpose of an enterprise that makes and sells things is profit, the bottom line.
Time 0:52:14
- Capitalism requires the firm.
- This is a crucial addition to private property and markets, turning market systems into true capitalism. Transcript: Speaker 1 Is a crucial part of the capitalism story. We’re talking about the legal underpinnings that make it all possible. Maybe, first foremost, the company, the firm. Speaker 2 AKA the corporation. It’s fundamental. Speaker 1 When I was in the UK, I went to see Wendy Carlin, a leading economist at University College London. I asked her a question that I put to most of the people interviewed for this season, what is capitalism and when did start? She started her answer by saying, capitalism has three elements. Speaker 3 So it has private property, markets, now they’ve been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, but the third component that was necessary to turn that market system into capitalism Is the firm, the capitalist firm. Speaker 2 Those East India companies, the British and the Dutch, were among the earliest and biggest firms founded at the start of the 17th century.