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Capitalism’s Alter Ego: The Birth of Reciprocity in Eighteenth-Century France

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Charles Walton, “Capitalism’s Alter Ego: The Birth of Reciprocity in Eighteenth-Century France”, in Critical Historical Studies, vol. 5, n°1, 2018, pp. 1-43

Abstract

This article traces the concept of reciprocity from its emergence in French philosophy during the Enlightenment to its recent growth in the humanities and social sciences. After charting the term’s accelerated use in French and English in the modern period, the article shows how its meaning has continually wavered between exchange equivalence (barter) and generosity and obligation (the gift, the Golden Rule). During the Enlightenment, these meanings converged in efforts to naturalize commerce and justify liberal economic reforms. A free-market society, it was argued, would be fair and bountiful. Upon the failure of such reforms in the early French Revolution, reciprocity and its new synonym “fraternity” became detached from economic liberalism. As capitalism became increasingly associated with wealth inequality in the nineteenth century, reciprocity became the watchword of capitalism’s critics, who tried to conceptualize social bonds in terms other than those offered by Homo economicus.

More information (publisher's website)

From Eden to Terror: Reciprocity, Redistribution and the French Revolution
01 October 2015 - 30 June 2016
30 June 2016
523
Charles Walton
18102
2018
History
Contemporary period (1789-…)
Western Europe
Charles Walton