Abstract
This essay analyzes the political economic theories of Eugen Dühring and Henry C. Carey as they relate to the topic of local autonomy. Both men were highly influential “outsiders” in the theoretical discussions of their day, collaborating in an effort to fight the influence of the British classical school of economics. Dühring went to great lengths to propagate Carey’s books and ideas and was strongly influenced by Carey’s theories. With the publication of his Kritische Grundlegung der Volkswirtschaftslehre in 1866 the Berlin scholar distanced himself from his mentor in developing his own system of economics. With regard to the topic of centralization, the two scholars are in agreement on the dangers inherent in centralized forms of government. The solutions that they offer differ substantially and reflect fundamental methodological differences between the two men.
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Notes
- 1.
Gerhard Albrecht deserves credit for ensuring that Dühring’s achievements in the field of political economy were not forgotten. Cf. Eugen Dühring. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Sozialwissenschaften (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1927). On Carey, see Rodney Morrison’s important in-depth study, Henry C. Carey and American Economic Development (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1986). There is an excellent dissertation written in the Weimar Republic comparing the doctrines of the two men by Hermann Lamberz. Carey and Dühring. Ein Vergleich ihrer nationalökonomischen Lehren (Dissertation, Wilhelms-Universität zu Münster, 1926).
- 2.
The present bias towards centralization of government can be seen through the language, i.e., through the terminology chosen to discuss the topic. Instead of speaking of “centralization” vs. “concentration” or “local autonomy,” we hear “centralization” vs. “fragmentation.” See Andrew Moravcsik (ed.), Centralization or Fragmentation (New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1998).
- 3.
Dühring, Sache, Leben und Feinde (Karlsruhe and Leipzig: H. Reuther, 1882): 70. The American historian Henry Adams, who came to Berlin to study Civil Law in 1858, was highly critical of the methods of teaching at the University of Berlin. The scion of the famous Adams family wrote in his autobiography: “The professor mumbled his comments; the students made or seemed to make notes; they could have learned from books or discussion in a day more than they could learn from him in a month, but they must pay his fees, follow his course, and be his scholar if they wanted a degree […]. Neither the method nor the matter nor the manner could profit an American education.” The Education of Henry Adams (New York: The Modern Library, 1946[1918]): 75–76. Nietzsche also condemned the state of learning at the German universities: “Everything that matters has been lost sight of by the whole of the higher educational system of Germany: the end quite as much as the means to that end. People forget that the education, the process of cultivation itself is the end—and not the empire—they forget that the educator is required—for this end—and not the public school teacher and university scholar.” Twilight of the Idols (Herdfordshire: Wordsworth, 2007[1889]): 44.
- 4.
Sache, Leben, und Feinde, op cit, p. 82.
- 5.
Albrecht, Eugen Dühring, op cit, p. 12.
- 6.
Dühring’s efforts in support of Carey are truly remarkable, especially when one considers the physical handicap of his blindness. He wrote two books and eleven articles on Carey: Careys Umwälzung der Volkswirtschaftlehre und Sozialwissenschaft (Munich: Fleischmann, 1865) and Die Verkleinerer Careys und die Krisis der Nationalökonomie (Breslau: Trewendt, 1866); “Careys Bedeutung für die Sozialpolitik”; “Der amerikanische Sozialphilosoph Carey”; “Carey als Arbeiter-Ökonom”; “Carey und seine Sozialökonomie.” He also wrote a series of articles in the Deutsche Industrie Zeitung. Organ der Handels-und Gewerbekammern zu Chemnitz et al., entitled “Der Amerikanische Nationalökonomen Carey und die Deutschen”: “I. Eine transatlantische Lehre,” 26 (30 Juni 1865): 251–252.“II. Handel und Verkehr” DIZ 27 (7 July 1865): 261–262. “III. Der Zollverein,” 27 (14 July 1865): 271–272. “IV. Der Bodenertrag,” 30 (28 July 1865): 291–292. “VI. Gewinnvertheiling zwischen Capital und Arbeit,” 34 (24 August 1865): 331–332. “VII: Ein merkwürdiger Satz über die Bewegung der Capitalien” 35 (31 August 1865): 341–342. “VIII. Wirtschaftlicher Decentralisation” 36 (7 September 1865). The Dühring Papers shows that Dühring sent Carey these articles and that Carey approved of Dühring’s portrayal. Cf. Carey to Dühring, 29 October 1865, where it reads: “The Summary of my doctrines that you have given in the Zeitung is excellent. And most glad am I to see that they are being there popularized.”
- 7.
Carey, The Unity of Law (Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1872): iii–iv. Many of the letters between Carey and Dühring can be found in the Dühring Papers of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. There are some additional letters in the Carey Papers located with the Historical Society of Berlin. Sadly, many, if not most, of the letters sent by Dühring to Carey have been lost.
- 8.
Dühring, Sache, Leben und Feinde, op cit, pp. 231–232.
- 9.
In a letter of Carey’s to Dühring, Carey describes his personal background: “You ask some account of myself, but, unfortunately, there is really nothing to say, my life except so far as I have been before the world as an economist, having been a very private and uneventful one. For many years I was at the head of the largest publishing house in the country, and when I left that pursuit I gave my time and mind to the study of the great science of which you are now a teacher. I have never filled any public office whatsoever, nor have I ever been a candidate for any public employment. You will see therefore, that there is little to be said about me whatever you may think proper to say about my books.” Dühring Papers, Box 6, letter 10, Manuscript Department/Staatsbiliothek zu Berlin.
- 10.
Morrison, Henry C. Carey, op cit, p. 8.
- 11.
With regard to cultivation, Carey and Dühring were of the opinion that due to the development of technology and more refined tools, it would become possible to cultivate better land that had been inaccessible in the past.
- 12.
In professing the anthropological importance of association, Carey emphasizes the key role of language without which “there can be no ideas—no power of thought.” See Henry C. Carey, The Unity of Law (Philadelphia: Baird, 1873): 77.
- 13.
Carey, Principles of Social Science vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1858): 190.
- 14.
Morrison, Henry C. Carey, op cit, p. 16.
- 15.
Unity of Law, op cit, p. 82.
- 16.
Morrison, Henry C. Carey, op cit, p. 62.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
Carey, Unity of Law op cit, p. 87.
- 19.
Ibid., p. 90.
- 20.
Ibid.
- 21.
Ibid., pp. 92–93.
- 22.
Carey was highly influential in Europe—interestingly, because of Dühring, no doubt, he was the only political economist who Friedrich Nietzsche was known to have read—and founded a school in America that educated scholars such as Robert Ellis Thompson, E. Peshine Smith, Stephen Colwell, and William Elder. Bernard, L.L., Origins of American Sociology: The Social Science Movement in the United States (New York: Russell & Russell, 1965): 389–343.
- 23.
Although Dühring values Carey for his systematic approach, there were many in Germany at the time who were wary of systems in general and criticized Carey for this aspect of his work. One reviewer of Carey wrote, “Es hat in Deutschland des geistigen Ringens einer ganzen Generation bedurft, um die Naturwissenschafen von der Herrschaft der naturphilosophischen; systeme’ zu erlösen und statt ihrer die sogenannte naturwissenschaftliche Methode als die allein berechtigte Form der Forschung zur Anerkennung zu bringen.” Wilhelm Wackernagel, “Carey’s System,” in Viertel Jahrschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Kulturgeschichte, vol. 28 (ed. Julius Faucher, Berlin: F.A. Herbig, 1867): 114.
- 24.
Cf. Dühring, “Der Amerikanische Nationalökonomen Carey und die Deutschen. VIII (Letzter Artikel) Wirtschaftliche Decentralisation,” in Deutsche Industrie Zeitung 36 (7 September 1865): 352.
- 25.
With regard to cultivation, Carey and Dühring were of the opinion that due to the development of technology and more refined tools, it would become possible to cultivate better land that had been inaccessible in the past.
- 26.
Kritische Grundlegung der Volkswirtschaftslehre (Berlin: Alb.Eichhof, 1866): 5.
- 27.
Cf. Albrecht, Eugen Dühring, op.cit., pp. 157–158.
- 28.
Carey saw the book as in some ways a sharp contradiction to his theories and spoke of Dühring “emancipating” himself from Carey. See Dühring, Sache, Leben und Feinde, op cit, p. 111.
- 29.
Kritische Grundlegung der Volkswirtschaftslehre, op cit, p. 177.
- 30.
Cursus der National-und Socialökonomie (Berlin: Grieben, 1873): 66.
- 31.
Cf. Binder, Das sozialitäre System Eugen Dührings (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1933): 52.
- 32.
Kritische Grundlegung, op cit, pp. 242–268.
- 33.
A similar position was taken by Franz Oppenheimer who believed that all scientific facts and behavior could be traced to two causes: one being “purely economic” the other being of a “political” nature.
- 34.
See my essay “Eugen Dühring and Post-Utopian Socialism,” in Jürgen Backhaus (ed.), The State as Utopia (New York, et al.: Springer, 2011): 194–196.
- 35.
Cursus der National-und Socialökonomie, 3.Aufl. 5. Such forced unjust actions cannot be considered scientifically as they represent aberrations from the “pure” progression of nature. Carey had warned as well of what he called “forced association of dependents” created when a centralized government gained too much power over its citizens, but, in our opinion, would not have advocated making deductions from “historical aberrations” as Dühring’s theory recommends.
- 36.
Binder points out that Dühring’s ideas on the use of force in history were taken from St. Simon. Das soziale System Eugen Dührings, op cit, p. 72. Dühring was also influenced by the ideas of Proudhon, ibid., p. 78.
- 37.
Cursus der Philosphie, pp. 269–270.
- 38.
Ibid., p. 320.
- 39.
Ibid., p. 265. In the second edition of his Cursus of National and Social Economy Dühring refined his vision of the free society to include a system of “economic communes,” egalitarian communities of people with a common language and common ancestry, where property and all forms of subjugation would vanish completely. Cf. Alberto Chilosi, “Dühring’s societarian moder of economic communes and its influence on the development of socialist thought and practice,” in Jürgen Backhaus (ed.), Eugen Dühring (1833–1921) and the freedom of teaching and research. Journal of Economic Studies 29 (2002): 293–306. Perhaps through Friedrich Engels popular polemic against Dühring, this concept became well known, although Dühring gave it up as unrealistic in the 3rd ed. of Cursus (1892). Cf. James Gay (2011) “Eugen Dühring and Post-Utopian Socialism,” op cit, pp. 201–202.
- 40.
In the last part of the first edition to his book “Wert des Lebens” Dühring claimed that reactive feeling or resentment was the only recognizable principle of justice or injustice. This emotive element existed, according to Dühring, not only in individuals, but also in societal groups. See Cursus der Philosophie p. 224.
- 41.
Ibid., p. 322.
- 42.
Ibid.
- 43.
Ibid., p. 327.
- 44.
This is a thought which was thematized by some of the best minds of the twentieth century. The philosopher and anthropologist, Arnold Gehlen, for example, following the work of Plessner and Scheler, convincingly demonstrated in his book Der Mensch that we as humans do not merely live, we lead our lives. Despite all attempts to make man a creature of instinct, urge, or some inevitable form of development, man seems to be dependent on a certain “idée directrice” or a norm of guidance. Gehlen, Der Mensch. Seine Natur und seine Stellung in der Welt (Wiesbaden: Aula-Verlag, 1986[1940]): 403.
- 45.
Dühring, Cursus der Philosophie, op cit, pp. 325–326, 1873.
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Gay, J. (2012). Dühring and Carey on Local Autonomy. In: Backhaus, J. (eds) Two Centuries of Local Autonomy. The European Heritage in Economics and the Social Sciences, vol 13. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0293-0_6
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