Confused Perceptions, Illuminating Analyses

Luca Meldolesi

Confused Perceptions,
Illuminating Analyses

Theoretical Essays on
Albert Hirschman’s Work

Volume 1

New York · Berlin · Bruxelles · Chennai · Lausanne · Oxford

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number: 2025008228

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Cover design by Peter Lang Group AG

ISSN 2576-9723 (print)

ISBN 978-3-0343-5604-6 (Print)

ISBN 978-3-0343-5605-3 (E-PDF)

ISBN 978-3-0343-5606-0 (E-PUB)

DOI 10.3726/b22613

© 2025 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne

Published by Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York, USA

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1. Toward a New Interpretive Hypothesis on the History of Modern Economic Thought

Chapter 2. Eugenio Colorni and Albert Hirschman in Trieste (1937–38)

Chapter 3. Early Writings

Chapter 4. Long Live National Power!

Chapter 5. A Critique of Economics: from Saint-Simon to Hirschman

Appendix: A Colornian decalogue à retenir

Bibliography

Subject Index

Index of Names

INTRODUCTION

I hope that, from a (primarily) Southern, Mediterranean, humanistic-social perspective, the essays included here succeed in showing off their possibilist inspiration in the dazzling light of the extraordinary analytical and proactive virtuosity of Eugenio Colorni and Albert Hirschman.¹

In fact, it is worth pointing out that my own contribution is inevitably “situated”—as all of us are (Albert Camus). We must always remember this, and always be ready to welcome with open arms many more contributions. For as a stateless person, Albert Hirschman belonged to the whole world before he too became (from time to time) “situated.” For this reason his general dimension is approachable (by the reader as well as by the critics) only gradually, by taking up the discussion from his different “locations” (the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Colombia, Brazil, etc.).

Of course, as much as I have tried to objectify these essays, their inspiration has to be seen as interactive—in the sense that even when I was in the United States, I inevitably analyzed Hirschman’s writings from an Italian perspective (from Rome and the Mezzogiorno), at the same time highlighting Albert’s interest in our country, also in relation to his experience as a whole.

This study concerns the young Hirschman’s experiences in Europe, focusing mainly on his two “Triestine” years (and the basic lesson they offer), and concludes with National Power, written in California in 1941–42,² and some consequences involving economic theory.

In their intentions at least, the essays assembled here together represent a distinctive way of looking at the extraordinary intellectual revolution wrought over time by Albert Hirschman—a hard-won perspective acquired, in successive theoretical-practical bursts, starting from Italy, the Mediterranean and beyond.

As such, my essays would suggest to other scholars and professionals the use of a variety of points of view. It was indeed Hirschman’s intention (and remains part of his legacy) that the change of optics for observing reality (to nudge it onto a favorable path) should be the business of “everyone,” no one excluded. And it is also because, to grasp such a general approach and be in a position to put it into practice, each individual needs to relive it, to own it from his or her point of view—spatial, temporal, environmental, generational, etc.

My hope, then, is that the somewhat unusual matter referred to will succeed in engaging many others, and will thus, on balance, prove useful.

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“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita…” [Midway through the journey of our life…] says the poet. Today we live a little longer (I was forty at the time)—in any case, with a hint of self-mockery, I too can start my own argument in this way—not of course to compare it with the original.

I took note of my (disappointing) “theoretical cluelessness”³ and set out to do remedial research. I visited Paris because I had read (and “modeled”) Fernand Braudel’s Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism.⁴ Later, leaving the University of Calabria and at the invitation of Giovanni Arrighi, Nicoletta Stame opened (to me, as well) the way to America. This was how, sometime later, she and I met Albert Hirschman at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.⁵

Albert needs no introduction. His well-known brilliance, creativity and scientific industriousness were incalculable, inimitable. Innovative, sharp, daring and cautious at the same time, he often said that one must seek “the good and the new”—in the sense that there is unfortunately good that is not new, and new that is not good.

Understanding his work calls (sua sponte) for a probing of its origins along with its possible consequences. Thus it happened that with the passage of time, the essays that follow got started spontaneously—during the long periods Nicoletta Stame and I spent with the “distinguish couple” (as, with typical self-irony, Albert and Sarah Hirschman introduced themselves), and proceeded in memories and insights—through “Long is the Journey” (A Colorni-Hirschman International Institute’s online Review), and through the internal debate at the Institute and several Conferences.⁶ Amid the chaos and turbulence of the world around us, I hope that these essays may prove helpful in keeping one of the few ‘threads’ that might cast an enlightening, encouraging ray of sunshine on our lives from slipping through our fingers.

We shall speak of this further along. Here I would like to preview some of the reasons why I suddenly sought to venture down Albert Hirschman’s path, with the intention, first and foremost, to understand the logic of it.

Briefly put, it was theoretical-practical dissatisfaction with economics (in general) and with critical economics (in particular)—especially because, even in their most elaborate forms, neither the one nor the other had stood up in the face of the tumultuous and rebellious experience of the 1960s–1970s.

Upstream of this was my interest in the political aspect of reality, which the various schools of economics generally consider a mere consequence, with no autonomous sphere of its own—so taught, in ancient times, [docebat, temporibus illis!] Lucio Colletti, from a prestigious chair of philosophy.⁷

And I also needed to understand why, unlike the great economists I had known close-up,⁸ Albert Hirschman—I sensed—had been able to move beyond their typical cogent and abstract way of seeing things.⁹

I was curious about the composite nature of Hirschman’s education as an economist, and also about the theoretical-methodological pointers that he later occasionally (partially) supplied.