Introduction

This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is written mostly by economists drawn from multiple theoretical traditions but also by scholars from philosophy, sociology, history, religious studies, evolutionary biology, and literature. In the twentieth century, a widening division of labor within social science particularly between the disciplines of economics and anthropology turned the impersonal/personal contrast into a reified, reductive dualism. After the Cold War in 1989, new lines of thought and exchange began to emerge among social theorists of diverse methodological and ideological orientations. Richard Cornuelle took a broad view of the scope of human action and the indispensability of ethical responsibility. The end of the Cold War found Cornuelle, in New Work for Invisible Hands, calling for classical liberal scholars to take seriously the challenges of the regimentation of work by modern corporations and to redouble their efforts to document, analyze, and energize the mislaid voluntary sector.