Rethinking the Notion of the Natural in Classical Political Economy

Hoon Hong
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Hoon Hong: Yonsei University

Korean Economic Review, 2006, vol. 22, 367-408

Abstract: This paper intends to clarify and evaluate the notion of the natural which constitutes the basis for explanation and justification of a market-based society in classical political economy. This notion is primarily detected in such concepts as natural price, natural wage and differential rent. The notion of the natural which is implicated in these concepts is characterized by the following features: the role of self-interest and instincts on the level of agency, the working of processes of competition and procreation under the constraint of diminishing fertility of land, the inevitability and beneficence of social outcome of these processes. The basic contention of this paper is that the classical notion of the natural is based on what may be dubbed the universally natural and the capitalistically natural which are not easily integrable.

Keywords: natural; Smith; Ricardo; Malthus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B1 B2 B4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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