As this is written, the Acton Institute staff is ramping up for another exciting Acton University, which will be held June 14-17. Since we inaugurated AU eleven years ago, it has become a jewel in the ever-expanding Acton portfolio of educational services we’re able to provide to not only clergy but also the public at large, who are eager to learn about blending good intentions with sound economic principles.
Economics, what the 19th-century Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle dubbed “the dismal science,” is often misconstrued as some type of alchemy conducted in the darkest academic corridors. Devoid of context, Carlyle’s quip too often serves as a justification to disregard what we know about markets in order to work backward from desired results while employing faulty economic theory. In this alternate universe, the aspiration for utopian ends justifies whatever means to attain them.
Nothing could be further from the truth, however. No less the father of modern economic thought and author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, another Scotsman, Adam Smith, also wrote a book titled The Theory of Moral Sentiments, after all.
Lest you think Carlyle is receiving the bum’s rush in this matter, I assure you that he also recognized the implicit and explicit moral repercussions inherent in matters both economic and social. Carlyle, readers are reminded, coined the phrase “dismal science” after his analysis concluded there exists no rational economic basis for slavery. In other words, the nexus of economics and morality makes the case against racism and slavery while at the same time championing liberty and equal opportunities. Carlyle concluded it was “dismal” to erroneously apply faulty economics to any market practice abrogating personal freedoms.
Too often, lazy or uninformed journalists misapply Carlyle’s phrase whenever they write about what they anticipate readers will interpret as economic injustices and moral dilemmas in today’s world. While it’s true these injustices and dilemmas inflict bleak results economically and morally, too often they are the unforeseen consequences of public policies informed by bad economics that place the cart before the horse on the immoral trail Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek christened The Road to Serfdom.
These in a nutshell are the religious and economic underpinnings of the Acton Institute. Outside the nutshell these underpinnings also provide the intellectual and spiritual scaffolding for the universe explored each year by more than 900 Acton University attendees and experts.
Sincerely,
Rev. Robert Sirico, President
