Great Expectations and Final Disillusionment. Keynes, “My Early Beliefs”, and the Ultimate Values of Capitalism

The paper analyses John Maynard Keynes’s 1938 autobiographical (and posthumous) essay “My Early Beliefs” with a view of retracing the fundamental values inspiring capitalist societies as detected by Keynes. It does so by examining Keynes’s criticisms of such values, distinguishing between the alternative “religious” bases on which such values are grounded. It thus explores Keynes’s criticism of the Christian, Protestant, Jewish values inspiring, according to Keynes himself, the most questionable passions of capitalism, without neglecting the impact of the “new” religions of Benthamism and Marxism. The paper speculates on Keynes’s desired revolution in values for transforming capitalism into a morally efficient system.