The title of this episode might confuse you: what on earth do Adam Smith and F. A. Hayek have to say about social justice? A surprising amount, given how much we talk about it!
Smith makes a big point of critiquing men of pride and vanity. What happens when those ultimately negative aspects of humanity go too far, into the territory of what he calls “domineering”? What happens when small acts of domination are aggregated throughout a society?
So here we are, talking about slavery, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement, through the lens of Hayek and Adam Smith. Our tour guide on this perilous journey towards the implementation and understanding of justice is the wonderful Jacob Levy.
Levy is the Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University. He is also the coordinator of the research group on Constitutional Studies at McGill.
Want to explore more?
- Jacob Levy, Rationalism, Pluralism, and the History of Liberal Ideas, a Liberty Matters symposium at the Online Library of Liberty.
- Don Boudreaux on the Essential Hayek, a Great Antidote podcast.
- Steven Horwitz, Spontaneous Order in Adam Smith, at AdamSmithWorks.
- Dan Klein on Adam Smith's Justice, a Great Antidote podcast.
- Rosolino Candela, Private Property and Social Justice: Complements or Substitutes? at Econlib.
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