P. H. Wicksteed on Self-interest: Resource Allocation and Social Inclusion

Yoshio Inoue ()
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Yoshio Inoue: Chuo University

A chapter in A Genealogy of Self-Interest in Economics, 2021, pp 125-144 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract “Self-interest” has a variety of meanings in economics. Sometimes it literally means a selfish behavior. Sometimes it simply means an autonomous behavior. This chapter focuses on P.H. Wicksteed whose work reminds us of such a variety of meanings of self-interest, to discuss that his resource allocation theory has a social inclusive philosophy. This chapter explores the methodology of Wicksteed in his research on Dante. Through the comparison between Dante and St. Thomas Aquinas, Wicksteed showed that Dante never saw the sacred world completely separated from the secular world, nor the sacred norm coming down from up above. Instead, Wicksteed considered Dante to have thought God’s will lies hidden in secular behavior, and the social norm should be grasped out of those ordinally behavior. Wicksteed applied the same methodology to his interpretation of economic theory. He considered that the real significance of the principle of resource allocation is not in realizing an efficient allocation of resources, but in making people remind the fact that we share the same autonomous behavior with all the other people including the rich and the poor. This fact could allow poor people to recover their self-confidence on one hand and invite a variety of social inclusive policies on the other. Wicksteed’s economic philosophy reminds us that the original and real significance of market economy lies in the inclusion of all of the people.

Keywords: Wicksteed; Dante; St. Thomas Aquinas; Resource allocation; Social inclusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-9395-6_8

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