L Homme Le Liberalisme Et Le Bien Commun: Le libéralisme et le bien commun [French]

By Axel Kahn

THE MAN, THE LIBERALISM AND THE COMMON GOOD

There is no humanity without exchanges between people, it goes without saying. Which is why sharing, bartering and trading have always played such a vital role in constructing human societies. Up until the Seventeenth Century, it was generally thought that individual and collective needs could be satisfied simultaneously. But when liberal thought emerged in the Eighteenth Century it was based on a pessimistic concept of human nature: human beings are fundamentally selfish and their primary aim is to maximise their own benefits. How can a society of selfish individuals uphold the general good? Two conflicting strands of economic liberalism diverged from this starting point: in one, private vices in and of themselves are believed to lead to public virtues, while in the other it is deemed essential for some form of intervention to guarantee the common good. Axel Kahn explains how the success of the first strand in the 1980s drove the world into financial crisis; and his prognosis is that, unless we rehabilitate the concept of general interests, this crisis will prove fatal for liberalism itself.

Axel Kahn is a doctor of genetics and a hands-on researcher as well as being director of research at the "Inserm" Institute. He was formerly director of the Cochin Institute and was chancellor of Paris-Descartes University.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: French
• ISBN: 2234073324
• ISBN13: 9782234073326
• Release Date: December 2019
• Publisher: Stock
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.5"