|
so:text
|
The Passions and the Interests does not have the policy urgency that a contribution to public decisions may enjoy , nor the compulsive immediacy that the exigencies of practical reason generate . What then is so special about this book? The answer lies not only in the recognition that Hirschman makes us see the ideological foundations of capitalism in a fresh way, but also in the remarkable fact that this freshness is derived from ideas that are more than two-hundred-years old. The basic hypothesis— the articulation and development of which Hirschman investigates—makes the case for capitalism rest on the belief that "it would activate some benign human proclivities at the expense of some malignant ones. (en) |
