Economics

In the 18th-19th Century economics was a popular subject amongst philosophers such as Nietzsche, Freud, Ricardo, Malthus and Smith. Economics claims to be a science and came about in the period of anti-enlightenment.

All of the following are Economists:

• Adam Smith wrote the book 'The Wealth of the Nations' which explored the reasons why one country is richer than another country. He believed that one of these reasons is Racism, wealthy countries are characterised by free individuals. Countries find themselves poor when there is too much government intervention.

Another one of his books which he wrote had a similar moral philosophy to Hume. For example, people always looking out for themselves- giving to charity to give yourself a good feeling, an ego boost. Therefore he believed in a philosophy which says that we are constantly weighing up what will give us the most pleasure by avoiding pain.

The law of unattended consequence - trying to help people but then you end up damaging them more in the process. You must allow people to be completely free economically.

• David Ricardo believed that all money comes from trade- reveals in a scientific way its true value. This is a metaphysical view. A spirit of value of things which is in things. According to Ricardo a world of contingent objects is worthless and is only valuable once humans apply conscious effort. This therefore can be described as the labour theory of value, a theory that states that the more labour that is put in to an object, the more value something has.

• Tom Malthus was associated with the Victorian period and had an outlook on life which believed that humans will always starve to death, since we always eat everything. To be man is to be on the brink of extinction. This is true since agriculturally we cannot make our own food.

Another theory of his was that marriage and no sex means that there will be no starvation. This is because in the 19th Century the human race almost bred itself into extinction, there just wasn't enough  resources to satisfy the vast population. Modernists disagree with this statement since they believed that with every mouth brings another pair of hands.

• Karl Marx believed that labour is the only real source of value. However, the more workers there are the more of a decrease in worker's wages.  Profit and capitalism consequently causes a large fatal flaw in the system. People won't be able to buy aggregated food. It is the workers that make objects valuable.

• Keynes Philosophy Keynes solved the Marxist problem of wages. Keynes offered the 'trade cycle' which means that if wages were so low people could be employed again.  The great depression of the 1930's was solved by World War 2 because men went into the army and this allowed women to work in factories. Everyone then stopped worrying about the superstition of gold as now people were able to use money in everyday life.