Luxury and the diversity of the Age of Enlightenment

Authors

• Niklas Pietilä University of Turku

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.67478

Keywords:

Hume, David, 1711-1776, Economics, Enlightenment, Wealth, Consumption (Economics), Luxury, Economists, Philosophy

Abstract

Economic thought of the eighteenth century has often been interpreted as a unitary whole, which set down the foundations of modern economics.In this essay, Pietilä discusses how the economic thinking of the era was fragmentary and more diverse than traditional overviews of the subject have suggested. Through a brief analysis of David Hume’s essay Of Luxury, published in 1742, Pietilä focuses on the complex concept of luxury as it was discoursed upon in the eighteenth century. Views of Hume and his contemporaries illustrate the level of disagreement in economic discourse during the eighteenth century,and as a conclusion it seems that diverse and wide-ranging arguments were part of the Age of Enlightenment as a whole.