The "Invisible Hand"

Journal of Business Ethics 46 (3):201 - 212 (2003)
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Abstract

The argument of the "Invisible Hand" is that the system of free enterprise benefits society in general even though it is not the aim of any particular economic agent to do that. This article proposes an analysis of why this is so. The key is that the morality of the market forbids only force and fraud; it does not require people to do good to others. Nevertheless, when all transactions are voluntary to both parties, that is exactly what we can expect to happen. This is both because the sum of the benefits of innumerable transactions, which are beneficial to both parties, is very great, but also and especially because of Positive Externalities. People use the particular products and services they get in market exchanges in ways that benefit others in ways not at all foreseen by the agents to those transactions at the time. These externalities range from the benefits of invention and ingenuity to the exercise of charity and philanthropy, all of which flourish in developed capitalist societies

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Jan Narveson
University of Waterloo

Citations of this work

Property and rights.Jan Narveson - 2010 - Social Philosophy and Policy 27 (1):101-134.
Cohen’s Rescue.Jan Narveson - 2010 - The Journal of Ethics 14 (3-4):263-334.
Cohen’s Rescue.Jan Narveson - 2010 - The Journal of Ethics 14 (3-4):263-334.
Democratic Agency and the Market Machine.Bernard Hodgson - 2012 - Journal of Business Ethics 108 (1):3-14.

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