The Economy of Esteem An Essay on Civil and Political Society [Paperback]

This groundbreaking book by two distinguished scholars from different disciplines begins by outlining the psychology of esteem and the way the working of that psychology can give rise to an economy. It then shows how a variety of social patterns that are otherwise anomalous come to make a lot of sense within an economics of esteem. And it looks, finally, at the ways in which the economy of esteem may be reshaped so as to make for an improvement -- by reference to received criteria -- in overall social outcomes. While making connections with older patterns of social theorising, it offers a novel orientation for contemporary thought about how society works and how it may be made to work. It puts the economy of esteem firmly on the agenda of economic and social science and of moral and political theory.

Introduction: The Rise and Fall of Esteem
Part I: The Psychology of Esteem
1. The Nature and Value of Esteem
2. The Demand for Esteem
3. The Supply of Esteem
4. Towards an Economy of Esteem
Part II: The Economics of Esteem
5. Performance-Centred Effects
6. Information-Centred Effects
7. Association-Centred Effects
Part III: The Politics of Esteem
8. The Power of the Intangible Hand
9. The Utility of the Intangible Hand

InThe Economy of Esteem, Geoffrey Brennan and Philip Pettit aim to restore attention to a fact that has been substantially neglected by an influential school of social theory for over a century....Brennan and Pettit's account of esteem thus prompts the perhaps unexpected realization that there is a connection between the theory of aggregate behavior and the problem of other minds. --Ethics