The Religion of Economics
Benedikt Koehler on the Enlightenment, Religion, and Mosaic Economics The Enlightenment purged economics of religion. This began when John Locke claimed that everyone had the right to pursue ‘life, liberty, and estate,’ which implied true happiness could be found this side of the afterlife; continued when Adam Smith explained markets followed an Invisible Hand, which made divine will irrelevant to economics; and concluded when Jeremy Bentham wrote that happiness was a surplus of pleasure over pain, which made ethics calculable. Modern economics has been built on insights into property rig...
Source: lareviewofbooks.org