Menu Expand

Re-Evaluating the Bourgeoisie: A Parallel between Deirdre McCloskey and Sergio Ricossa

Cite JOURNAL ARTICLE

Style

Mingardi, A. Re-Evaluating the Bourgeoisie: A Parallel between Deirdre McCloskey and Sergio Ricossa. Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, 140(3–4), 319-339. https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.140.3-4.319
Mingardi, Alberto "Re-Evaluating the Bourgeoisie: A Parallel between Deirdre McCloskey and Sergio Ricossa" Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch 140.3–4, 2020, 319-339. https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.140.3-4.319
Mingardi, Alberto (2020): Re-Evaluating the Bourgeoisie: A Parallel between Deirdre McCloskey and Sergio Ricossa, in: Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, vol. 140, iss. 3–4, 319-339, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.140.3-4.319

Format

Re-Evaluating the Bourgeoisie: A Parallel between Deirdre McCloskey and Sergio Ricossa

Mingardi, Alberto

Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. 140 (2020), Iss. 3–4 : pp. 319–339

Additional Information

Article Details

Author Details

Alberto Mingardi, Department of Humanities Studies, IULM University of Milan, Via Carlo Bo 1, 20143 Milan, Italy.

References

  1. Becattini, G., O. Castellino, O. D’Alauro, G. Fuà, S. Lombardini, S. Ricossa, and P. Sylos Labini. 1988. “Lettera al Direttore.” La Repubblica, September 30.  Google Scholar
  2. Boudreaux, D. J. 2014. “Deirdre McCloskey and Economists’ Ideas about Ideas.” In Liberty Matters Online Discussion Forum. Accessed July 31, 2020. https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/boudreaux-liberty-matters-deirdre-mccloskey-and-economists-ideas-about-ideas-july-2014.  Google Scholar
  3. Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by R. Nice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.  Google Scholar
  4. Buckle, H. T. (1857) 2011. History of Civilization in England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Google Scholar
  5. Colombatto, E. and R. Cubeddu. 2001. “Economia: scienza inesistente? Conversazione autobiografica con Sergio Ricossa.” Il Pensiero Economico Italiano IX (1): 187 – 99.  Google Scholar
  6. Corcoran, P. E. 1977. “The Bourgeois and Other Villains.” Journal of the History of Ideas 38 (3): 477 – 85.  Google Scholar
  7. De Mauro, T. 1994. ?”?Postfazione.” In Scrittori italiani di economia, edited by R. Bocciarelli and P. Ciocca, 403 – 34. Bari: Laterza.  Google Scholar
  8. Einaudi, L. 1944. La società liberale. Turin: L’Opinione.  Google Scholar
  9. Greenfeld, L. (2001) 2003. The Spirit of Capitalism: Nationalism and Economic Growth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.  Google Scholar
  10. Hayek, F. A. (1952) 1980. The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.  Google Scholar
  11. Huerta de Soto, J. 2011. The Austrian School. Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.  Google Scholar
  12. Huizinga, J. H. (1935) 1968. “The Spirit of the Netherlands.” In Dutch Civilization in the Seventeenth Century and Other Essays, edited by P. Geyl and F. W. N. Hugenholtz, 105 – 37. London: Collins.  Google Scholar
  13. Klamer, A. and D. N. McCloskey. 1992. “Accounting as the Master Metaphor of Economics.” European Accounting Review 1 (1): 145 – 60.  Google Scholar
  14. Kolakowski, L. (1978) 2005. Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders–The Golden Age–The Breakdown. Translated by P. S. Falla. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  Google Scholar
  15. Lowes, D. E. 2006. The Anti-Capitalist Dictionary: Movements, Histories and Motivations. London: Zed Books.  Google Scholar
  16. Marchionatti, R., F. Cassata, G. Becchio, and F. Mornati. 2013. “When Italian Economics ‘Was Second to None.’ Luigi Einaudi and the Turin School of Economics.” CESMEP Working Paper No. 04/2010. Department of Economics “S. Cognetti de Martiis” University of Turin. Accessed September 15, 2021. http://www.cesmep.unito.it/WP/2010/ 4_WP_Cesmep.pdf.  Google Scholar
  17. Marx, K. and F. Engels. 1888. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Edited and Annotated by Frederick Engels. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr.  Google Scholar
  18. Mathieu, V. 2003. ?”?Quando la Fiat ?‘?non chiudeva mai?’?. Colloquio tra Vittorio Mathieu e Sergio Ricossa.” Ideazione 1: 70 – 4.  Google Scholar
  19. McCloskey, D. N. (1976) 2001. “English Open Fields as Behavior towards Risk.” In Measurement and Meaning in Economics: The Essential Deirdre McCloskey, edited by S.T. Ziliak, 17 – 63. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.  Google Scholar
  20. McCloskey, D. N. 1976. “Does the Past Have Useful Economics?” Journal of Economic Literature 14 (2): 434 – 61.  Google Scholar
  21. McCloskey, D. N. 1983. “The Rhetoric of Economics.” Journal of Economic Literature 21 (2): 481 – 517.  Google Scholar
  22. McCloskey, D. N. 1985. The Rhetoric of Economics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.  Google Scholar
  23. McCloskey, D. N. 1994. Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Google Scholar
  24. McCloskey, D. N. 1996. The Vices of Economists: The Virtues of the Bourgeoisie. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.  Google Scholar
  25. McCloskey, D. N. 1999. Crossing: A Memoir. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  Google Scholar
  26. McCloskey, D. N. 2006. The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  Google Scholar
  27. McCloskey, D. N. 2010. Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  Google Scholar
  28. McCloskey, D. N. 2011. “A Kirznerian Economic History of the Modern World.” Accessed August 11, 2021. https://www.deirdremccloskey.com/editorials/kirzner.php.  Google Scholar
  29. McCloskey, D. N. 2016a. Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  Google Scholar
  30. McCloskey, D. N. 2016b. ?”?Adam Smith Did Humanomics: So Should We.” Accessed August 11, 2021. https://www.deirdremccloskey.com/docs/pdf/SmithDidHumanomics.pdf.  Google Scholar
  31. McCloskey, D. N. 2016c. ?”?The Two Movements in Economic Thought, 1700 – 2000: Empty Economic Boxes Revisited.” Accessed August 11, 2021. http://deirdremccloskey.org/docs/pdf/CataniaSpeech2016.pdf.  Google Scholar
  32. McCloskey, D. N. 2017. “One Woman’s Adventures in Gender Crossing and Civil Disobedience.” Reason, April. Accessed August 11, 2021. https://reason.com/2017/03/18/sex-shrinks-and-the-state/.  Google Scholar
  33. McCloskey, D. N. 2019. Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All. New Haven: Yale University Press.  Google Scholar
  34. McCloskey, D. N. 2020a. Historical Impromptus: Notes, Reviews, and Responses on the British Experience and the Great Enrichment. Great Barrington, MA: AIER.  Google Scholar
  35. McCloskey, D. N. 2020b. “Apologia Pro Vita Sua: A History of My Economic Opinions.” Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch 140 (3 – 4).  Google Scholar
  36. Mill, J. (1823) 1992. “On Government.” In James Mill: Political Writings, edited by T. Ball, 1 – 42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Google Scholar
  37. Minogue, K. (1963) 2000. The Liberal Mind. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.  Google Scholar
  38. Mises, L. v. 1956. The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality. New York: D. Van Nostrand.  Google Scholar
  39. Montanelli, I. 1999. “Presentazione” to S. Ricossa. Scrivi che ti passa. Turin: Fògola.  Google Scholar
  40. Narduzzi, E. and L. Scheggi Merlini. 1994. Antonio Martino. La rivolta liberale. Milan: Sperling and Kupfer.  Google Scholar
  41. Ricossa, S. 1958. “L’economia matematica qualitativa (metodologia economica e pratica aziendale).” Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia. Nuova Serie 17 (11/12): 595 – 611.  Google Scholar
  42. Ricossa, S. (ed.). 1966. L’economista ispirato. Turin: Dell’Albero.  Google Scholar
  43. Ricossa, S. 1973. “Italy 1920 – 1970.” In The Fontana Economic History of Europe, Vol. 6, edited by C. M. Cipolla. London: Collins.  Google Scholar
  44. Ricossa, S. 1974. Storia della fatica. Quanto dove e come si viveva. Rom: Armando.  Google Scholar
  45. Ricossa, S. (1980) 2016. Straborghese. Turin: IBL Libri.  Google Scholar
  46. Ricossa, S. 1981. Teoria unificata del valore economico. Turin: Giappichelli.  Google Scholar
  47. Ricossa, S. (1986) 2006. La fine dell’economia. Soveria Mannelli-Treviglio: Rubbettino-Facco.  Google Scholar
  48. Ricossa, S. 1989. “Economia.” In Enciclopedia del Novecento. Accessed September 15, 2021. http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/economia_res-9d65d6bb-87f0-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_%28Enciclopedia-del-Novecento%29/.  Google Scholar
  49. Ricossa, S. (ed.). 1990. Le paure del mondo industriale. Bari: Laterza.  Google Scholar
  50. Ricossa, S. 1996. Maledetti economisti. Le idiozie di una scienza inesistente. Milan: Rizzoli.  Google Scholar
  51. Ricossa, S. and P. Melograni (eds.). 1988. Le rivoluzioni del benessere. Bari: Laterza.  Google Scholar
  52. Ricossa, S. and E. Tuccimei (eds.). 1992. La Banca d’Italia e il risanamento post-bellico 1945 – 1948. Bari: Laterza.  Google Scholar
  53. Smith, A. (1776) 1982. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.  Google Scholar
  54. Terna, P. 2016. “Sergio Ricossa, 1927 – 2016, in memoriam.” Unito News, March 14. Accessed August 11. 2021. http://www.unitonews.it/index.php/it/news_detail/sergio-ricossa-1927-2016-memoriam.  Google Scholar
  55. Wahrman, D. 1995. Imagining the Middle Class: The Political Representation of Class in Britain, c. 1780 – 1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Google Scholar
  56. Zaccagnini, E. 1964. “L?’?opera analitica di Arrigo Bordin.” Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia, Nuova Serie 23 (5/6): 402 – 20.  Google Scholar
  57. Ziliak, S. T. 2010. “Deirdre N. McCloskey.” In The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics, edited by R. B. Emmett, 301 – 5. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.  Google Scholar

Abstract

This paper compares Deirdre McCloskey’s reading of the “bourgeois reevaluation” with Sergio Ricossa’s. Italian economist Sergio Ricossa was – like McCloskey – schooled in the neoclassical, formalistic tradition, but in time drifted toward a more “Austrian” approach, as he was influenced by the work of F.A. Hayek. Like McCloskey, in a number of works Ricossa aimed to vindicate the bourgeoisie, placing what McCloskey would later call “the bourgeois deal” at the source of modern economic growth. Ricossa and McCloskey were not connected, nor friends. Yet they both arrived at re-evaluating the bourgeoisie, explicitly linking their liberalism to the historical role played by a specific class. This paper will look at their respective paths, which in some respects are parallel, and will show how their common appreciation of the Bourgeois Era went hand-in-hand with libertarianism as a political philosophy and with a strong appreciation of the Bourgeois Era in history.