Lisa Herzog's Inventing the market: Smith, Hegel, and political theory. Oxford University Press, 2013, 208 pp.

Abstract

Review of Lisa Herzog's Inventing the market: Smith, Hegel, and political theory. Oxford University Press, 2013, 208 pp.This short but insightful book is based on the author's Oxford DPhil thesis. As its title indicates the book analyses and compares the of the by Adam Smith and G. W. F. Hegel, and puts special emphasis on their relevance for philosophical issues. Two challenges are central to this project. First, the obvious interdisciplinary angle of this study means that it takes its subject matter, the market, from the field of economics, but the treatment it receives has little in common with economic theory as it is [generally] practised today (p. 11). The intention of this study is rather to show how Smith's and Hegel's understanding of the can benefit and deepen certain sterile (from the Hegelian point of view) philosophical such as the one on liberalism/ individualism versus communitarianism. Here Herzog's is certainly legitimate and deserves to be encouraged. Second, the author's sustained (and at times strained) efforts to make these historical thinkers fruitful for contemporary problems or at least current debates in political philosophy, lead her to advance bold methodological programme which she calls a post-Skinnerian approach (pp. 11-14). The merits of Quentin Skinner and in general of the 'Cambridge school' of the history of ideas are not denied or minimized, but the author does argue that such contextual readings may lead to neglecting systematic questions (p. 12). This may be more contentious.Chapter 1 provides general introduction that highlights the meaning and, indeed, the power of the over our lives, while insisting that the has not figured prominently in the political theory of the last decades [...] Often, the seems to be the ghostly 'other' of the institutions political theorists focus on, something that needs to be tamed and restricted, but not itself made an issue (p. 3). By way of this diagnosis (and the criticism it implies) the general direction of this study becomes evident. The introduction also provides some basic information on Smith and Hegel, as well as their impact on later thinkers (p. 5ff.), before arriving at the methodological statement already mentioned.Chapters 2 and 3 give brief competent accounts of the respective constructions of the market by Smith and Hegel. On Smith, Herzog begins by attacking the superficial readings (cliches) of The wealth of nations (WN) that were long common and survive in some economics textbooks and other odd corners. To deepen his image and to make Smith emerge more clearly as philosopher, Herzog briefly describes his context and gives an idea of Smith's overall system-drawing not only upon WN, but also The theory of moral sentiments, Lectures on Jurisprudence, and even his essay on the history of astronomy-and of his subtle notion of nature. The chapter culminates with Smith's account of the society, presented in three steps: (a) the institutional framework with its classical tasks of protecting the members of society from foreign invasion as well as from internal oppression and of establishing an exact administration of justice; (b) the mechanisms and functions of the free market, including the metaphor of the invisible hand; (c) consideration of the possible failures and insufficiencies of the market, and various remedies. The author might have paid more attention to the last point (dealt with in only about one page: 36-37), to counter-balance the optimistic conclusion of the preceding section on the general opulence that might spring from the proper functioning of the it (she does however come back to this in chapter 6).The chapter on Hegel begins with general overviews of Hegel's reception and the place that is (or is not, in more piece-meal revivals of certain aspects only of Hegel's practical philosophy) attributed to Hegel's system. …