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| Econ 411 |
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Spring 2025 |
| WVU Class and Time | Brooks Hall D 225 T-Th 4:00-5:15 |
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| Instructor: | Professor Roger D. Congleton |
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| Office: | 5201 Reynolds Hall |
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| .Office Phone | 3-7866 (during office hours) |
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| roger.congleton@mail.wvu.edu
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way to reach me). |
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| Office Hours: | 2:30-3:30 Tuesday and Thursdays, and most other afternoon times by appointment |
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| Required Texts: | Congleton, R. D., Solving Social Dilemmas: Ethics, Politics, and Prosperity. Oxford University Press. (Plus class webnotes, links provided below) |
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| Optional Texts | Source Material for the Course* | |
| . | Aristotle (350 bc) Nicomachean Ethics (Available as an E-book from Google, Liberty Fund, Amazon, etc.) Buchanan, J. M. (1997) Ethics and Economic Progress. Norman OK: University of Oklahoma Press. Mill, J. S. (1863) On Liberty. Boston: Ticnor and Fields. (Available as an E-book from Google and Liberty Fund). Rand, A.(2005) Atlas Shrugged. New York: Penguin. (Available as an E-book from Google and Amazon). Smith, A. (1776) An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. (Available as an e-book from Google and Liberty Fund). Spencer, H. (1896) Principles of Ethics. Appleton and Company, New York. (Available as an e-book at Liberty Fund and at the Von Mises Institute) Weber, Max (1930) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (Available as an e-book from Google and Amazon.) |
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| Course Description: |
Tentative Syllabus (as a PDF) | . |
| . | Moral Foundations of Capitalism is a lecture-based course that explores how some types of ethical dispositions–internalized rules–allow markets to become larger and more effective sources of food, material comfort, and entertainment. They do so by reducing unproductive conflict, avoiding over use of common resources, simplifying contract enforcement, internalizing externalities, reducing team production problems, encouraging capital accumulation and innovation, and avoiding counter productive public policies. The great acceleration of commerce that “took off” during the nineteenth century that produced the effective markets that we largely take for granted today was associated with a shift in norms that generally supported market activities. |
Whether then we suppose that the End Aristotle (2012-05-17). Ethics |
| For not only is a developed sense of responsibility absolutely indispensable, but in general also an attitude which, at least during working hours, is freed from continual calculations of how the customary wage may be earned with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of exertion. Labor must, on the contrary, be performed as if it were an absolute end in itself, a calling. But such an attitude is by no means a product of nature. Weber, Max (2012-10-21). The Protestant Ethic and the |
The course is divided in to three parts. (1) The first part reviews theories of ethics from Aristotle through A. Pigou. This intellectual history introduces students to several theories of ethics.The theories demonstrate that ethics is not simply a gut feeling, but may have rational foundations. The overview also provides evidence that ethical theories in the West gradually became more supportive of commerce in the period before the great acceleration in the West during the nineteenth century. (2) The second part of the course uses game theory and economic theory to show how a subset of ethical dispositions can increase the efficiency and extent of exchange and production. When such ethical dispositions become commonplace, trading networks become more extensive, specialization increases, larger economic organizations become feasible, and rates of innovation tend to increase. In this manner, a commercial society can emerge. (3) The third part of the course explores how normative theories affect governance and market relevant public policies. It demonstrates that the ethical dispositions of voters and rule enforcers can make a government more likely to be “productive” than “extractive.” Together the second and third parts show that without supportive norms, markets would be far smaller and less efficient, and average material welfare much lower. The main goals of the course are to induce students (1) to Overall the course suggests that some societies are richer |
