ABSTRACT
You will recall that our discussion of the meaning of law in Chapter 1 led us to consider the distinction between merely conventional or positive law and natural law, and that the concept of natural law obliged us to allude to a longstanding debate about human nature that is anything but over. More specically, I referred briey to the question of whether human beings are by nature social or a-social, cooperative or competitive. is question is taken up in Chapter 9, “Human Nature and the Market,” in the form of an argument between Adam Smith, perhaps the most celebrated defender of the “naturalness” of a competitive, market economy, and Karl Polanyi, well known for his claim that a competitive market mentality is a relatively rare exception to the general rule of the subordination of individual self-interest to social obligation.
