The hand behind the invisible hand : dogmatic and pragmatic views on free markets and the state of economic theory
(eBook)

English

10.51952/9781529215793

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND Made famous by the Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith, the concept of an 'invisible hand' might be taken to imply that a government that governs least governs the best, from the viewpoint of society. Here an invisible hand appears to represent unfettered market forces. Drawing from this much-contested notion, Mittermaier indicates why such a view represents only one side of the story and distinguishes between what he calls pragmatic and dogmatic free marketeers. Published posthumously, with new contributions by Daniel Klein, Rod O'Donnell and Christopher Torr, this book outlines Mittermaier's main thesis and his relevance for ongoing debates within economics, politics, sociology and philosophy.

Karl Mittermaier (1938-2016) was affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for over thirty years until his retirement in 1998.