Whose invisible hand? The capture of God’s providential hand in capitalism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24220/2447-6803v49a2024e13002Palabras clave:
Invisible hand, Market, Neoliberalism, Progress, ProvidenceResumen
In this article, I explore the metaphor of the invisible hand of the market as a secularized form of the providential hand of God. I first explain the metaphor of the hand of God, which refers to God’s providential action found in the Old and New Testaments and serves as a symbol for how the world functioned in pre-modern times. I then show how the advent of modernity replaces the need for the hand of God with the new ideal of scientific progress, where human beings become the central agents of their future. Finally, I propose that already in modernity there is an appropriation of the hand of God within the capitalist logic, through Adam Smith and the invisible hand, but that moving forward to contemporaneity, the invisible hand is transformed into a secularized theology of providence based on Friedrich Hayek’s concept of the spontaneous order of the market.
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Derechos de autor 2024 Tiago de Melo Novais
Esta obra está bajo una licencia internacional Creative Commons Atribución 4.0.
