thetic impulse: It through art as a force of integration
and balance that true humanity can emerge and undo
the antagonisms that are the source of ethical and
political disturbance.
Art offers an ideal of balance and integration most
clearly expressed through play. Schiller’s ideas here are
an important precursor to MARXISTs and socialists in
defining a form of ALIENATIONbrought about by a lack
of wholeness and the distortion of humanity through
division and antagonism.
Schiller was born in Marbach, Germany. He studied
medicine and worked briefly as a doctor before devot-
ing himself to writing. Schiller was an important poet,
a dramatist, and a leading figure in the German
Romantic movement. He was a professor at the Uni-
versity of Jena and died at the early age of 45.
Further Reading
Sharpe, L. Friedrich Schiller: Drama, Thought and Politics.Cam-
bridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Schumpeter, Joseph Alois (1883–1950) Eco-
nomist
Schumpeter was an economist whose ideas concerning
the nature of CAPITALISM, the proper definition of
democracy, and the possibility of SOCIALISMhave been
very influential.
Schumpeter’s economic ideas are most clearly set
out in his early book, Theory of Economic Development,
first published in 1912 and translated into English in
- He offers a dynamic account of the nature of
capitalism by which he meant that capitalism as an
economic system is always changing, and he identified
the source of this change in the entrepreneur: The
entrepreneur innovates and thereby alters the course
of the economy by encouraging others to follow. An
entrepreneur innovates by bringing to the market new
goods, new ways of producing existing goods, opening
new markets, and so on. What is crucial here for
Schumpeter is the idea that the social is not a slave to
an economic base, as is the case, for example, with
Marx.
Schumpeter’s most well-known work is Capitalism,
Socialism and Democracy,published in 1942. The three
main topics discussed are MARX, Schumpeter’s reluc-
tantly held belief that socialism would replace capital-
ism, and, finally and probably most importantly, his
redefinition of democracy.The critique of Marx is also
Schumpeter’s acknowledgement of Marx’s influence
and “greatness.” Schumpeter answers negatively the
question of whether capitalism will survive. He argues,
among other points, that capitalism’s success under-
mines its capacity to innovate through entrepreneurs
who are replaced by managers, concedes that a demo-
cratic socialism is possible and likely, and, finally, sets
out a detailed criticism of the standard definition of
democracyas rule by the people for the common good.
He argues that there is no identifiable good that is
common to all, and he denies that politicians are pas-
sive representatives of the people’s will. Instead he
claims that “the democratic method is that institu-
tional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in
which individuals acquire the power to decide by
means of a competitive struggle for the people’s vote.”
Democracy is thus the rule of the masses by an elite
who acquire the right to rule by competing with each
other for the votes of the people. This allegedly non-
ideological definition was seen as a productive way of
analyzing and understanding the character of political
power in democratic states.
Schumpeter was born in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and studied at the University of Vienna where
he received a doctorate in 1906. He was a professor at
the University of Graz. In 1919, he was briefly the
finance minister but resumed his academic career and
later moved to the United States, joining Harvard Uni-
versity where he remained until his death.Further Reading
Harris, S. Schumpeter: Social Scientist.North Stratford, N.H.:
Ayer Co. Publishing, 1951.Scottish Enlightenment
A philosophic movement in Scotland from 1740 to
1790, including economic theory, political thought,
and moral philosophy, represented in the writings of
Adam SMITH, David HUME, Frances HUTCHESON, Lord
Kames, and Thomas Reid. Besides its influence on
MODERN British political theory, the Scots Enlighten-
ment greatly affected the United States of America (as
in Thomas JEFFERSON, James MADISON, and John WITH-
ERSPOON).
Like the FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT, this Scottish
school of thought emphasized PROGRESSin society, pol-
itics, and ETHICS, but unlike the European intellectual
movement, it did not divorce this from religion. Many
of the leading Scots Enlightenment thinkers were272 Schumpeter, Joseph Alois