This essay surveys the social and political thought of Robert Young, who founded the Philanthropic Society in London in 1788. After investigating the political economy of late eighteenth-century philanthropy, which was intertwined with the critique of the Poor Laws, and localizing the roots of philanthropic ‘psychology’ in the principle of self-love, the essay shows how philanthropy was conceived of as a form of policing. Young is here presented as the theorist of philanthropy as a ‘science of society’, and associational philanthropy as the privileged theoretical and practical field through which the early notion of ‘social science’ was conceptualized in Britain.
Cazzola, M. (2023). Robert Young and the Philanthropic Science of Social Happiness (c.1788-1801). HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT, 44(1), 116-152.
Robert Young and the Philanthropic Science of Social Happiness (c.1788-1801)
Cazzola, Matilde
2023
Abstract
This essay surveys the social and political thought of Robert Young, who founded the Philanthropic Society in London in 1788. After investigating the political economy of late eighteenth-century philanthropy, which was intertwined with the critique of the Poor Laws, and localizing the roots of philanthropic ‘psychology’ in the principle of self-love, the essay shows how philanthropy was conceived of as a form of policing. Young is here presented as the theorist of philanthropy as a ‘science of society’, and associational philanthropy as the privileged theoretical and practical field through which the early notion of ‘social science’ was conceptualized in Britain.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
