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Karl Mittermaier and the hands of classical liberalism
Author(s) -
Klein Daniel B
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/ecaf.12403
Subject(s) - appeal , liberalism , classical liberalism , invisible hand , meditation , feeling , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , order (exchange) , state (computer science) , perception , sociology , epistemology , law and economics , law , political science , aesthetics , positive economics , philosophy , economics , politics , neoclassical economics , mathematics , theology , finance , algorithm , statistics
Karl Mittermaier (1938–2016) completed a work in 1987 titled The Hand Behind the Invisible Hand: Dogmatic and Pragmatic Views on Free Markets and the State of Economic Theory , published for the first time in 2020. Here I treat Mittermaier's rich meditation, which I interpret as a pursuit of greater coherence in classical liberal thought. Mittermaier emphasises the moral, cultural, and institutional preconditions of a liberal market order, and argues that some of the preconditions depend on people feeling that they have reason to embrace such classical liberal principles. The preconditions, then, depend in part on the perception of coherence and appeal of the liberal order.