Polanyi: Philosophic Argument (Essay Sample)

Polanyi: Philosophic Argument
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Polanyi: Philosophic Argument
Summary
Karl Polanyi was born in Vienna, Hungary in 1886 and was a famous philosopher of the 20th century. His philosophic arguments that revolved around neoclassical economics and its relation with human behavior brought about tremendous attention, insight and criticism. Concisely, the philosopher remains one of the most outstanding critics of capitalism or rather the ‘Free Market System" with his thesis of embeddedness. A keen look into the philosophy of Polanyi indicates that he saw human social behavior as the controlling factor behind the economy or Market. Born in Vienna towards the end of the 19th century, he gained tremendous prominence as an economic philosopher, sociologist and an educationalist. He advocated for the realization of economic policies that went up against traditional economic thought while opposing the mainstream economic philosophy of the time. Overall, however, one can correctly argue that Polanyi’s philosophy, though vigorously incisive, was motivated by the realization of general welfare and social justice for society in general. Just like Hayek and Keynes, among other great philosophers, the views of Polanyi became popular in numerous fields of study and life in general.
Polanyi’s "The Great Transformation" describes and criticizes the rise of capitalism; he calls it the "Market Society”. Currently, the concept of capitalism or Free Market system is not only so prevalent in all corners of the world, but also forms the central focus of today’s modern societies. A keen logician cannot however fail to notice that this concept (of market society), as asserted by Polanyi, has resulted in some notable damages to humanity and natural settings altogether.
Ideologies
The idea of embeddedness is without doubt a complex one. Polanyi strives to indicate that the market society and so capitalism is characterized by a separation of human institutions like family, politics and religion among others. As such and in a sense, there exist aspects of disembeddedness so to speak, and the economy ought to be viewed as a separate sphere to be embedded by virtue of moral order as the guiding principle behind both economic and social relations.
Polanyi maintains that before the realization of modernity, economic activities were embedded in human social behavior and or interactions. However, with the coming of modernity, arose the idea and manifestation of the market society. To explain this, Polanyi describes a community oriented by parameters of market forces of demand and supply and so, the independent institutions created by man. As such, human relations have become subordinate to means of allocating scarce resources within the society. In other words, the philosopher demonstrates his being on familiar terms with the fact that capitalism has resulted in a situation whereby the modern society fails to hold sufficient regard for human social needs but rather exclusively focuses on economic factors. In the Great Transformation, Polanyi terms this concept as the Speenhamland system, further citing that modernity’s main feature is the Market economy, characterized by laissez-faire, which in not a natural aspect, considering it leads to the annihilation of human substance in the society.
Indeed, the Market economy has resulted in increased commoditization of human social life, an idea supported by this paper. Polanyi explains that the free markets actively treat Labor (human beings) and Land (nature) as commodities- fictitious commodities. The main reason for supporting this idea lies in the fact that the market economy has all its aspects subject to market forces and mechanisms, a feature that Polanyi sees as the source of predicament for the society. Even though he accepts that a purely free market cannot exist (an utopia), Polanyi emphasizes the importance of ‘protectionism’ as a countermovement for the dangers posed by capitalism. This together with the other movement (capitalism/ market economy) forms the concept of double movement. As such and in the fullest sense, it is important to note that the double movements exist both in simultaneously as they resist and fight against each other. The concept is not characterized by a temporal sequence, according to Polanyi; capitalism was under the influence of the double movement by the first half of the 20th century.
In support of his assertions, this paper recognizes that Polanyi’s ideological beliefs demonstrate that the world’s economic order is nothing short of detrimental to society in a number of ways. The philosopher observed that market mechanisms often conflicted with social mechanisms in Vienna during early 19th Century. Socialist majorities, who commanded foundational politics tended to dominate all aspects of the economy. This is hence viewed as a major influence on Polanyi’s theories regarding the socialist economy as a positive one. He bore strong disinclination to social-democratic free market economy as he saw importance in exercise of social responsibility by all members of society. Moreover, Polanyi saw...