An Historical Inquiry into Self-love, Speech and Sociability

The notion of economic exchange based on rational and morally neutral self-interest is the only one available to economic theory today. This notion has been widely applied to human behaviour to explain every aspect of society as a process of bargaining. In response to this approach, recent years have seen a flourishing of radical critiques, fuelled by the economic, political and environmental crisis, which propose moving beyond economic exchange as a key element of social life towards various forms of sharing economy. The scope of this project lies within this polarisation and attempts to overcome it by going back centuries, when the modern notion of economic exchange was conceived and this polarisation did not yet exist. This project aims to show that exchange is not merely the result of self- interested indifference to the most pressing social issues that make up the foundations of our being together.

Call fo papers / HOPE Special Issue / The Wealth of Nations at 250The ‘Rethinking Exchange’ project explores the notion of exchange in the debates about human nature and self-love, primitive societies and the origin of languages that took place in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, within which political economy arose. Drawing on these debates, the project re-examines the origins of the modern concept of exchange in order to provide a new definition of economic relations and a new hypothesis of economic agency. In particular, the project is organised around three major axes associated with the following controversies:

a) self-love and exchange in the debate on human nature

b) sociability, values and exchange in the debate on primitive societies

c) speech and exchange in the debate on the origin of language.

The central aim of this project is to show that, through a historical analysis of modern European thought, it is possible to arrive at a new understanding of exchange as the basis of sociability rather than the breaking of social bonds. In doing so, this research aims to contribute to the contemporary debate on moral agency. It seeks a broader understanding of exchange than that developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by linking relevant theories and controversies about the origins of language, sociability and human nature that emerged in Europe in the seventeenth century and spread in the eighteenth century, when modern political economy was born. It also aims to explain Smith's idea of the market and his theory of prices in terms of this extended concept, thus contributing to Smith studies and to the history of economic ideas by providing an interdisciplinary perspective on these debates. Finally, it aims to propose a concept of exchange that can be used for experimental research in economics

Call for paper - Adam Smith’s session during the AISPE/SISE Conference in Palermo 2023

 Program of the AISPE/SISE Conference in Palermo

Call for paper – Workshop “The words of exchange. Adam Smith and the debates on ‘primitive’ societies and the origin of languages”, 17 June 2024, Sorbonne University / Panthéon Paris

Program of the Workshop “The words of exchange”, 17 June 2024, Sorbonne University / Panthéon, Paris

Call for papers – 2025 IASS Lecce conference
https://smithsociety.org/welcome-to-the-2025-international-adam-smith-society-conference/

Call fo papers / HOPE Special Issue / The Wealth of Nations at 250

Michele Bee

Marie Curie Fellow

Manuela Mosca

Scientific Responsible

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101030264
Start date: 08/04/2023 // End date: 07/04/2025