Disagreements about the morality of markets, and about self-interested behavior within markets, run deep. They arise from perspectives within economics and political philosophy that appear to have nothing in common. In this book, Daniel Finn provides a framework for understanding these conflicting points of view. Recounting the arguments for and against markets and self-interest, he argues that every economy must address four fundamental problems: allocation, distribution, scale, and the quality of relations. In addition, every perspective on the morality of markets addresses explicitly or implicitly the economic, political, and cultural contexts of markets, or what Finn terms 'the moral ecology of markets'. His book enables a dialogue among the various participants in the debate over justice in markets. In this process, Finn engages with major figures in political philosophy, including John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Michael Walzer, as well as in economics, notably Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and James Buchannan.

一位越战英雄，在离开战场三十年后，家庭圆满、事业有成，却为何自责悔恨、郁郁而终？
一位在非洲从事人道救援的年轻女性，在经历战乱、腐败、贫穷和疾病的威胁后，为何仍能鼓足勇气，继续艰难的奉献工作？
一位在文革时期被好友出卖、受尽磨难的医生，当有机会复仇时，为何会选择将手中的刀剑轻轻放下？
美国知名人类学家和精神病医师阿瑟•克莱曼，费时数年对这些“苦难经验”细致观察和体验，并以深刻的洞察力揭示了，勇敢面对生活中的危机和无常，并超越地方性价值观所带来的的限制，才是真正重要的事。

真是匪夷所思，试想亚当•斯密——一个死了两个世纪的古怪的家伙——他的精神竟然仍在继续发挥着或大或小的影响，甚至超越了这个电子化的现代世界中处于支配地位的科技思想。但事实的确就是如此。
因此，亚当•斯密不能被遗忘！他的一生仅两部巨著，但却公认是西方经济学理论体系的奠定者，甚至今天的人们仍生活在斯密所阐述的时代里。
问题是，市场经济发展了两百多年，人们是否真正理解了斯密？现代西方经济理论和实践的发展是否真正遵循了斯密市场经济思想的真谛？未必！
这本由普林斯顿大学出版社总编写作的书，是一本从经济学说史的角度又立足当代现实的非常有趣的读物。该书具有很好的现实与历史的契合点。该书以现实的“问题意识”为主线展开全书的逻辑的，同时又在各章的论述中与亚当•斯密的经济思想紧密联系，可谓源于现实又不离理论。该书兼顾学术性和通俗性。无论在语言风格还是在内容安排上，都力图体现其通俗性，然而在朴实而又风趣的语言的背后作者试图揭示深刻的经济学思想。
书评摘选
“多尔蒂清楚地告诉我们，如果我们真正坚持了亚当•斯密最初的道德理想，那么恐怕只有无知的幼儿才会害怕他。”
——达林•麦克马洪 《华尔街日报》
“多尔蒂向我们揭示了斯密之后的历代经济学家是如何从斯密那里汲取他们喜欢的东西，却把有价值的见解束之高阁的。今天的经济学家终于开始‘自省’，为的是更好地理解复杂文明社会的本质，而这个文明社会正是我们经济体系的根基。”
——大卫•沃什，《经济学原理》
“阅读这本书仿佛是在咖啡店里与一位魅力四射的经济学狂热爱好者进行了一次有趣的谈话。他坚信经济学很重要——确实如此。多尔蒂先生抑制不住自己的冲动，提出了种种引人入胜的见解，使我们得以更好地解释了市场经济的运作原理。”
——克里斯托弗•法雷尔，《商业周刊》
“这是一次畅游历史经济思想的愉快旅程，它从亚当•斯密的思想出发，马歇尔、凯恩斯、萨缪尔森、弗里德曼、罗默等等伟大的经济学家被作者一一描绘于其中。这本书可以吸引到任何对经济学感兴趣的人。”
——切顿•帕里克，《资本理念》

《道德箴言录》是法国著名思想家、格言体道德作家拉罗什福科的巅峰之作，它并不是一堆规范和训条的集合，告诉人们应当做什么，不能做什么，而是一系列对人们行为品质的分析和描述，揭露人们实际上在做什么、想什么，它类似于一部道德心理学著作。《道德箴言录》在问世以后，产生了两种截然不同的反响，一方面许多人感到它痛快淋漓地说出了人们想说的话，揭露了当时上流社会、宫廷贵族中的道德腐败和伪善，因而热烈地欢迎它以至于作者在第五版序中说“公众对它们的溢美目前已超过了我能为它们说的好话。”但另一方面它也受到了不少责难和指控，这一点从他最后留下的几段箴言中可以看出，例如：”人们反对这些揭露人的内心的箴言的原因是：他们害怕被揭露。”

In this moving and thought-provoking volume, Arthur Kleinman tells the unsettling stories of a handful of men and women, some of whom have lived through some of the most fundamental transitions of the turbulent twentieth century.
Here we meet an American veteran of World War II, tortured by the memory of the atrocities he committed while a soldier in the Pacific. A French-American woman aiding refugees in sub-Saharan Africa, facing the utter chaos of a society where life has become meaningless. A Chinese doctor trying to stay alive during Mao's cultural revolution, discovering that the only values that matter are those that get you beyond the next threat. These individuals found themselves caught in circumstances where those things that matter most to them--their desires, status, relationships, resources, political and religious commitments, life itself--have been challenged by the society around them. Each is caught up in existential moral experiences that define what it means to be human, with an intensity that makes their life narratives arresting.
These stories reveal just how malleable moral life is, and just how central danger is to our worlds and our livelihood. Indeed, Kleinman offers in this book a groundbreaking approach to ethics, examining "who we are" through some of the most disturbing issues of our time--war, globalization, poverty, social injustice--all in the context of actual lived moral life.

“I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character, but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it.”—David Brooks
With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives. Responding to what he calls the culture of the Big Me, which emphasizes external success, Brooks challenges us, and himself, to rebalance the scales between our “résumé virtues”—achieving wealth, fame, and status—and our “eulogy virtues,” those that exist at the core of our being: kindness, bravery, honesty, or faithfulness, focusing on what kind of relationships we have formed.
Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade.
Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.
“Joy,” David Brooks writes, “is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes.”