Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

A New Conservative Agenda

What has been known as conservatism in the Republican party since Ronald Reagan left office, fully thirty years ago, has become inadequate. This has been evident for a while, though we’re only now noticing. From the Great Recession and loss of manufacturing jobs to perpetual war in the Islamic . . . . Continue Reading »

Origami of the Soul

The modern state typically inspires two antithetical interpretations. Progressives see the state as a means to restrain capitalism, level the economic playing field, ensure equality, and liberate the individual from the dead hand of traditional forms of marriage, family, and sexual morality. . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

ECONOMISM Richard Spady’s article “Economics as Ideology” (April) has some excellent insights. Spady argues that economics functions as an ideology when it imposes its rigid anthropology—dominated by a simplistic, utility-maximizing mythology of the individual—on the material it . . . . Continue Reading »

Economics as Ideology

Economics can serve as an ideo­logy. But it can be something other than an ideology. It can be a social science, for instance, most immediately concerning things about money, and extending to the calculus of social and cultural exchanges where notions of benefit and utility operate. Economics is . . . . Continue Reading »

Filter Tag Articles