Thomas Sowell is a conservative ideologue who works for a right wing
think tank named the Hoover Institute. He gives his definition of a
“social vision” in his book "A Conflict of Visions: Ideological
Origins of Political Struggles". This review published in "The Review
of Austrian Economics" of that book should answer any questions you
have about his thoughts of social “visions” and there place in
society.
http://www.mises.org/journals/rae/RAE4.asp
Scroll down to the book reviews section. I’ll attempt to summarize:
Sowell uses his ideas about vision to draw a historic philosophical
dichotomy between the people who have “constrained” and
“unconstrained” visions of how society should behave. A person with a
constrained vision believes human nature is fundamentally unchangeable
by societal organization. A person with unconstrain vision is someone
who believes shifts in human nature are possible if society is
arranged properly. His often referred to example of a constrained
visionary is Hayek who believed strongly in the market and self
organizing social institutions. His example of an unconstrained
visionary is William Godwin who believed that if people act
rationally, we could live in an anarchist utopia.
Sowell himself clearly falls in with the constrained. However, he has
difficulty in producing multiple examples of his unconstrained
visionaries. In addition, he sets up a false dichotomy between
rationalists and people who support the market system. Apparently, he
badly mangles Rawl’s theories of social justice in his interpretation
of them. All in all, he apparently doesn’t really come to any coherent
conclusions with this dichotomy.
PS Is this for a school project, business meeting or are you just
trying to get people to read his stuff? Just curious, do not take
offense. |
