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Crises, confidence, and animal spirits:exploring subjectivity in the dualism of Descartes and Keynes

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  • Sonya Marie Scott

    (The Department of Social Science, York University (Toronto, Canada))

Abstract

This paper will explore the nuanced epistemological status of the economic subject in Keynes’ work, alongside the physiology of the human subject in Descartes’ Passions of the Soul and Treatise on Man. In both instances ‘animal spirits’ serve as an indicator of dualism within the subject. In Descartes, the spirits mediate between the soul and the body, between the rational and non-rational, by their effect on the pineal gland. In Keynes, animal spirits push up against a certain form of economic rationality and represent a non-rational impulse inherent to human nature that is often opposed to economic reason. While Keynes’ conception of economic subjectivity extends well beyond the rationalism of many of his predecessors, the dualism presented in his work by means of the animal spirits is worth considering in philosophical terms. Ultimately this paper will conclude that Keynes’ work contains an element of what Gilbert Ryle (1949) has termed the ‘intellectualist legend,’ that is, the philosophical assumption that we must think first, and then act, relegating spontaneous action to the realm of the ‘animal’ or the ‘non-rational.’

Suggested Citation

  • Sonya Marie Scott, 2018. "Crises, confidence, and animal spirits:exploring subjectivity in the dualism of Descartes and Keynes," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 11(2), pages 1-28, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bus:jphile:v:11:y:2018:i:2:n:1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    animal spirits; economic rationality; dualism; long-term expectation; epistemological subjectivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General
    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics

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