Homo Oeconomicus: The Rhetoric of Self-Interest in Nineteenth-Century German Psychology

Abstract

Examines the rhetorical makeup of the idea that humanity is selfinterested, focusing on the shift from a neutral observation of selfinterest to the positing of self-interest – that is, from the idea of selfinterest to a rhetoric of self-interest. Claims the idea of self-interest may be as potent as it is, precisely because it cannot be refuted since it is always possible to inscribe a currency into other people’s acts that make it seem that they are furthering their own interests. Discusses Friedrich Eduard Benecke’s psychology as a case study for the idea of self-interest in German psychology.