Title An age of risk : politics and economy in early modern Britain / Emily C. Nacol

Published Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2016]

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Description 1 online resource Contents Introduction -- "Experience concludeth nothing universally" : Hobbes and the groundwork for a political theory of risk -- The risks of political authority : trust, knowledge, and political agency in Locke's politics and economy -- Hume's fine balance : on probability, fear, and the risks of trade -- Adventurous spirits and clamoring sophists : Smith on the problem of risk in political economy -- An age of risk, a liberalism of anxiety Summary In "An Age of Risk", Emily Nacol shows that risk, now treated as a permanent feature of our lives, did not always govern understandings of the future. Focusing on the epistemological, political, and economic writings of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, and Adam Smith, Nacol explains that in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain, political and economic thinkers reimagined the future as a terrain of risk, characterized by probabilistic calculation, prediction, and control. In these early modern sources, Nacol contends, we see three crucial developments in thought on risk and politics. While early modern thinkers differentiated uncertainty about the future from probabilistic calculations of risk, they remained attentive to the ways uncertainty and risk remained in a conceptual tangle, a problem that constrained good decision making. They developed sophisticated theories of trust and credit as crucial background conditions for prudent risk-taking, and offered complex depictions of the relationships and behaviors that would make risk-taking more palatable Analysis Adam Smith David Hume John Locke Lockean political trust Michel Foucault Thomas Hobbes civil war commerce commercial actors early modern Britain early modern period economic risk eighteenth century future uncertainty geometry human ambivalence knowledge liberalism mercantile policies monopolies moral theory nineteenth century philosophical skepticism political authority political economy political order political risk political subject political theory political thought political trust probabilistic calculation probability risk control risk prediction risk taking risk-taking risk safe political community security threat seventeenth century uncertainty unknown future writings Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Print version record Subject Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679 -- Philosophy Locke, John, 1632-1704 -- Philosophy Hume, David, 1711-1776 -- Philosophy Smith, Adam, 1723-1790 -- Philosophy SUBJECT Smith, Adam, 1723-1790 fast Locke, John, 1632-1704 fast Hume, David, 1711-1776 fast Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679 fast Subject Risk -- Sociological aspects. PHILOSOPHY / Political. Philosophy Risk -- Sociological aspects SUBJECT Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056789 Great Britain -- History -- 18th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056808 Subject Great Britain Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781400883011 1400883016

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