ECON 002. First-Year Seminar: Greed

In 1776, Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest…Every individual… neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much is is promoting it…he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”
This seminar investigates the degree to which self-interest should be the organizing principle of economic and social organization.
This course counts as 1 of the 8 economics credits needed to fulfill an economics major, but it does not take the place of ECON 001. It, therefore, cannot be used to fulfill the ECON 001 prerequisite for further work in the Economics Department.
Social sciences.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Economics
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/economics

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