Buchbesprechung: Adam Smith, and Karl Marx: on some fundamental issues in 21st century political economy : von Spencer J. Pack's
Journal
Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics
Type
book review
Date Issued
2012-11-30
Author(s)
Herzog, Lisa
Abstract
Spencer Pack's new book can be understood as an architectural guidebook to three great buildings: the intellectual systems of Aristotle, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx. There is also an outlook on the contemporary landscape, as announced in the subtitle. For the most part, however, Pack analyses the writings of these three seminal figures, and he looks at them through the lens of three pairs of concepts: exchange value and money, capital and character, change and government. Spencer does not provide a detailed justification for his focus on these concepts or on these three thinkers-except that they are important figures in our intellectual tradition and stand in a kind of "dialogue" (p. xi). So the proof of the pudding is in the eating; but, to anticipate, the overall result justifies this choice of focus, as it illuminates central dimensions of the thought of Aristotle, Smith, and Marx, and leads to insightful comparisons.