Английская Википедия:Animal spirits (Keynes)
Animal spirits is a term used by John Maynard Keynes in his 1936 book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money to describe the instincts, proclivities and emotions that seemingly influence human behavior, which can be measured in terms of consumer confidence.[1]
Use by Keynes
The original passage by Keynes reads: Шаблон:Blockquote
Earlier uses
Philosophy and social science
The notion of animal spirits has been described by René Descartes, Isaac Newton, and other scientists as how the notion of the vitality of the body is used.Шаблон:Citation needed
In one of his letters about light, Newton wrote that animated spirits live in "the brain, nerves, and muscles, [which] may become a convenient vessel to hold so subtle a spirit." These spirits, as described by Newton, are animated spirits of an ethereal nature, relating to life in the body. Later, it became a concept that acquired a psychological content, but was always thought of in connection with the life processes of the body. Therefore, they retained a lower overall animal status.[2]
William Safire explored the origins of the phrase in his 2009 article "On Language: 'Animal Spirits'":
Thomas Hobbes used the phrase "animal spirits" to refer to passive emotions and instincts, as well as natural functions like breathing.[3]
Ralph Waldo Emerson in Society and Solitude (1870) wrote of "animal spirits" as prompting people to action, in a broader sense than Keynes's:
In social science, Karl Marx refers to "animal spirits" in the 1887 English translation of Capital, Volume 1. Marx speaks of the animal spirits of the workers, which he believes a capitalist can either impel by encouraging social interaction and competition within their factory[4] or depress by adopting assembly-line work whereby the worker repeats a single task.[5]
Earlier and contemporaneous English use
Шаблон:Tone The authors P. G. Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle were popular among public school boys in England before the Great War. Both used the phrase "animal spirits" in their writings.
Шаблон:BlockquoteШаблон:Blockquote Шаблон:Blockquote
Wodehouse uses antithesis in the latter example to make comedy out of Mr. Downing's astonishment. Psmith In The City (1910) was based on Wodehouse's own experiences in the 'square mile' and the theme is implicitly elaborated on in the financial environment of the New Asiatic Bank. Шаблон:Clarify
John Coates of Cambridge University describes the Edwardian public school environment as one where dynamism and leadership coexist with less constructive traits such as recklessness, heedlessness, and in-caution.[6] Coates attributes this to fluctuations in hormonal balances; abnormally high levels of testosterone may create individual success but also collective excessive aggression, overconfidence, and herd behavior, while too much cortisol can promote irrational pessimism and risk aversion. The author's remedy for this is to shift the employment balance in finance towards women and older men and monitor traders' biology.
Contemporary research
The term "animal spirits" was used in the works of a psychologist that Keynes had studied in 1905 and also suggests that Keynes implicitly drew upon an evolutionary understanding of human instinct.Шаблон:Clarify[7]
In 2009, economists George Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller advised in addition that:
Шаблон:BlockquoteShiller further contends that "animal spirits" refers also to the sense of trust humans have in one another, including a sense of fairness in economic dealings.[8]
See also
Notes
Further reading
- Akerlof, George A., and Robert J. Shiller. Animal spirits: How human psychology drives the economy, and why it matters for global capitalism (Princeton University Press, 2010) online.
- Dow, Alexander, and Sheila C. Dow. "Animal spirits revisited." Capitalism and Society 6.2 (2011). online
- Francois, Patrick, and Huw Lloyd-Ellis. "Animal spirits through creative destruction." American Economic Review 93.3 (2003): 530–550. online
- Howitt, Peter, and R. Preston McAfee. "Animal spirits." American Economic Review (1992): 493–507. online
- Lear, Jackson. Animal Spirits: The American Pursuit of Vitality from Camp Meeting to Wall Street (2023) excerpt
External links
- "Animal spirits" from The EconomistШаблон:'s economic terms
- "A special report on the future of finance: Wild-animal spirits", The Economist, 22 January 2009
- "Animal Spirits Depend on Trust: The proposed stimulus isn't big enough to restore confidence" by Robert J. Shiller, The Wall Street Journal, 27 January 2009
- Loewenstein, George and Ted O'Donoghue. "Animal Spirits: Affective and Deliberative Processes in Economic Behavior", Cornell University Working Paper 04–14, August 2004
- In 2013, NPR's Planet Money produced a video series and web site following the making of a tee shirt that they designed, featuring a visual pun on Keynes' animal spirits.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Hypothesis explaining the properties of light Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society, vol. 3 (London: 1757), pp. 247-305.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite journal
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite news
