The Theory of Social Cooperation Historically and Robustly Contemplated

Originally published in SSRN

In this paper, the authors attempt to recapture the doux commerce thesis and its relevance for contemporary debates over commerce and culture.

Early efforts to tame man’s passions going back to antiquity focused on the repression of those passions. As the political and social sciences emerged, the argumentative focus shifted from repressing to harnessing man's passions. This is what produced the discovery of the "invisible hand" within the market society. While the "invisible hand" argument was initially focused on the ability of commerce to generate cooperation and ameliorate conflict among strangers, it gradually came to be exclusively associated with a sort of ruthless efficiency and the obtainment of optimality conditions. We attempt to recapture the doux-commerce thesis and its relevance for contemporary debates over commerce and culture.

read more

Find the working paper at SSRN.com.

Mercatus AI Assistant
Ask questions about this research.
GPT Logo
Mercatus AI Research Assistant
Ask questions about this research. Mercatus Chatbot AI More Details
Suggested Prompts:
Ask us anything. We use OpenAI's ChatGPT 4o base model to answer any question about Mercatus research.