ABSTRACT
Contemporary developing countries are marked by distinctive social dynamics and relatively high economic growth rates compared to the rest of the world. Eighteenth-century Britain is a historical example of economic growth; it was the leading trading and manufacturing country of Europe, and as such, attracted the attention of philosophers of the time by its dazzling trend of development. Both Adam Smith and David Hume, however, admit that passions are incentives to development; but they cannot consider a general equation of passion with 'vice' as appropriate in a discourse that is normally supposed to attach a positive value to development in the sense of increase of wealth. The celebrated contemporary economist and philosopher Amartya Sen questions the viability of the quantitative approach underlying such optimistic views on development, arguing that it is insensitive to the perception of happiness of individuals.
