A theoretically explicit idea that there can be a free-market economy that does not need state intervention is largely a product of early modern European political philosophers—most notably, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679); Adam Smith (1723-1790), and Sir James Steuart (1713—1780). These men invented the justification for free-market economics; contemporary defenders of free-market capitalism continue to hearken back to their formulations. Hobbes's observations that individuals give up some of their autonomy in exchange for protection begins this particular line of thought. In the work of Smith and Steuart, the "norm of reciprocity," as it is known, became the central justification for an autonomous free-market economy.

The arguments of Smith and Steuart assumed that reciprocity was not just an observable fact of human society, but actually a natural force in and of itself—a regulatory mechanism that would cause the give and take of market interests to eventually balance out, regardless of individual greed or misappropriation. Smith's notion of the "invisible habiosignaturend" that regulates the market without external controls is perhaps the most famous such formulation. Steuart arguably went even further when he described the activity of exchange as the very basis of society itself—the "cement" that bound the producers of different commodities together through mutual interdependence.


The passage is most compatible with which of the following characterizations of the relationship between Hobbes, Smith, and Steuart?


Hobbes, Smith, and Steuart had identical understandings of the role of reciprocity in a free-market economy.

Hobbes's notion of reciprocity entails the later theories of Smith and Steuart; Smith and Steuart simply derived implications of his ideas in light of later developments.

Smith and Steuart significantly distorted Hobbes's notion of reciprocity; Hobbes would not have agreed with their notion of reciprocity as a market-regulating force.


Smith's "invisible hand" was more faithful to Hobbes's original notion than was Steuart's “cement".

Unlike Smith and Steuart, Hobbes did not necessarily view the norm of reciprocity as the basis for an autonomous free-market economy.

考题讲解

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正确答案是 B。

B 选项表明,霍布斯的概念的回报包含了以后的理论史密斯和斯蒂亚特的理论,史密斯和斯蒂亚特根据霍布斯的思想在随后的发展中推导出其他的含义。从文章中可以看出,这些政治哲学家在发展自由市场经济理论时有着相似的思想,他们认为回报是人类社会的一种自然力量,而不仅仅是一种可观察到的事实。因此,B 选项是最为合理的答案。

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