SOME COMMENTS ON PROFESSOR RÄDEL'S “PROFIT MAXIMIZATION—CAN IT BE JUSTIFIED?”*

Arnt Spandau

South African Journal of Economics, 1969, vol. 37, issue 3, 268-272

Abstract: In the confrontation of the principle of acquisition with the principle of self‐sufficiency, Professor Rädel's suggestive and penetrating paper condenses Werner Sombart's work on modern capitalism. As is well known, Sombart characterized the economic objective of medieval man, as one of meeting needs, and that of modern man as one of seeking profits. To quote Rädel: “The principle of self‐sufficiency (‘Bedarfsdeckungsprinzip’), the characteristic basic objective of economic activity of the middle ages, is replaced by the principle of acquisition, as much as ‘traditionalism’ is replaced by ‘rationality’ as formal principles of economic operations. It is the essential characteristic of the principle of acquisition that the primary aim of economic activity is no longer the satisfaction of the requirements of man, which are relatively limited and personal in nature, but rather the acquisition of wealth represented by a sum of money, which is entirely unlimited and of a more impersonal anonymous nature.”1 Rädel also mentions the linkage, drawn by Sombart, between the “development of the modern democratic state, modern technology and the discovery of new continents” and the growth of capitalism, together with the formation of a “spirit of wordliness… and of lust for power.”2

Date: 1969
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.1969.tb02519.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:37:y:1969:i:3:p:268-272

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0038-2280

Access Statistics for this article

South African Journal of Economics is currently edited by Philip A. Black

More articles in South African Journal of Economics from Economic Society of South Africa Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().