A homo oeconomicus és homo politicus csatája a 19. századi magyar politikai eszmetörténetben
The Battle of Homo Oeconomicus and Homo Politicus in the 19th Century Hungarian Political Ideological History

Summary/Abstract: This paper argues that despite of the efforts of political economists like David Hume or Adam Smith, the moral evaluation of self-interested motives or acts was, in some places, controversial throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the paper primarily focuses on Hungarian instances of the above-mentioned phenomenon, it also intends to place them in an international context. The ideas enumerated and partly elaborated here are taken from both works of philosophy and literature, and are intended to highlight the political concerns triggered by the sinister image of the unconstrained self-interestedness of individuals. As we shall see, a certain part of the literary and scientific public, both in Hungary and elsewhere held that political communities could not be maintained on purely Smithian grounds, and hence the utility function of classical political economists should be updated with a new variable, called “sense of community” by them.

• Details
• Contents