Abstract This paper elucidates several aspects of the liberal discourse concerning the welfare state. It is argued that the basic principles of liberalism (the ahistorical economic concept of the self, the fallacy of a naturalistic notion of competition and a state without the foundation of a...

In this paper it is shown that the Historical School is based on a concept of sensus communis or Gemeinsinn (sense of community) rather than on a concept of an essentialist entity. Wilhelm Roscher in particular was dealing with the problem of how individual self-interest and conscience are...