Carlo M. Cipolla

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Carlo M. Cipolla (actually Carlo Cipolla , also Carlo Maria or Carlo Manlio Cipola ) (born August 15, 1922 in Pavia ; † September 5, 2000 ibid) was an Italian economic historian and writer .

Life

After studying at the University of Pavia, the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics , he began his professional career at the University of Catania (Sicily), followed by numerous other Italian universities. From 1959 until his retirement in 1991 he taught at the University of California at Berkeley . In 1978 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . His work has been translated into many languages.

Awards

Cipolla has received several awards, including an honorary doctorate from ETH Zurich in 1980 and from the medical faculty of the University of Pavia in 1992 . He was a member of the Royal Historical Society , the British Academy , the Accademia dei Lincei , the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia.

In 1995 he received the Balzan Prize for Economic History with this laudation: “Carlo Maria Cipolla is considered by experts to be an authoritative researcher in economic history who has broken new ground there more than others. By virtue of his thirst for knowledge, curbed by his intellectual and methodological rigor, and thanks to meticulous exploration of the sources, he has managed to treat the most varied areas of economic and cultural history in works of great originality and to combine overview-like representations with detailed investigations. "

reception

His satirical book “ Allegro ma non troppo ” is a special case . At first only as a private print for friends, then published by Il Mulino in Bologna in 1988, it surprisingly became a bestseller (more than 300,000 circulation). It consists of two essays “ Pepe, vino (e lana) come elementi determinanti dello sviluppo economico nell'età di mezzo ”, German under the changed title “The role of spices (especially pepper) for the economic development of the Middle Ages”, and “ Le leggi fondamentali della stupidità umana ” (German: “The principles of human stupidity”). In the first, Cipolla satirizes his own economic historical analysis technique in order to come to absurd conclusions, in the second he formulates the surreal basic laws of stupidity (the translation "principles" does not quite apply) according to economic parameters . He himself said ironically that he was annoyed by the disproportion between effort and audience success: he had devoted decades of great historical research, which at best would be read by "two or three colleagues", while these two essays, written in two sleepless nights, were enormous Would have had a broad impact. In the meantime, thanks to these brilliant essays, which have also been translated into German, he has become known to a wider audience with his scientific work.

Graph with the gains and losses that an individual causes for himself and others (see explanations in the text) Intelligent people (top right); Naive people (top left); Bandits (bottom right); Stupid people (bottom left).

The principles of human stupidity

In a nutshell, these are the five fundamental laws or principles of stupidity that Cipolla satirically describes in his work The Principles of Human Stupidity :

  1. Always and inevitably the number of stupid individuals circulating is underestimated.
  2. The likelihood that a particular person is stupid is independent of any other quality of that person. As a result, there is always the same proportion of stupid people in all social groups, both among janitors and university professors.
  3. A stupid person is someone who harms another person or a group of people without making any profit himself and thereby possibly causing harm. U. even makes additional loss (the so-called "golden principle").
  4. People who are not stupid always underestimate the danger potential of stupid people. Most importantly, people who are not stupid keep forgetting that negotiating and / or associating with stupid people at any time, any place, and in any case will inevitably turn out to be a costly mistake.
  5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of any person

His conclusion: stupidity does more harm than crime. Because you can protect yourself against criminals, but the stupid acts completely irrational and unpredictable, and there is no protection against the unpredictable.

The figure shows the two "factors" that Cipolla observed in humans:

  • The x-axis are gains (high values ​​/ upper sections) and losses (low values ​​/ lower sections) that an individual causes for himself
  • The y-axis is the gains (high scores) and losses (low scores) one individual makes for others .
    • Stupid people (bottom left in the graphic) are counterproductive for themselves and for others
    • Bandits (bottom right) pursue their own interests (have a profit themselves), even if this results in a net disadvantage for social welfare.
    • Smart people (top right) contribute to society and also use their contributions to mutual benefit
    • Naive people (top left) also contribute to society (others benefit), but have no use themselves.
    • In the middle are the helpless and ineffective people .

This account can only convey the essence of Cipolla's "theory". For a full satirical understanding, reading the original or a translation is recommended.

Works (selection)

Cipolla has authored a large number of works on economic topics in English and Italian, including:

  • Istruzione e sviluppo. Il declino dell'analfabetismo nel mondo occidentale. Il Mulino, Bologna 2002 (Original English: Literacy and Development in the West , Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1969)
  • The economic history of world population. (German: Economic history and world population. German TV, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-423-04110-2 )
  • Le avventure della lira. Il Mulino, Bologna 1975, ISBN 88-15-08498-3
  • Storia economica dell'Europa pre-industriale. ( Before the industrial revolution: european society and economy 1000–1700. Methuen, London 1976, ISBN 0-416-80900-6 )
  • Tra due culture. Introduzione alla storia economica . Il Mulino, Bologna 1988
  • Contro un nemico invisibile. Epidemic e strutture sanitarie nell'Italia del Rinascimento. Il Mulino, Bologna 1986
  • Allegro ma non troppo. German. by Moshe Kahn : Wagenbach, Berlin 2001. ISBN 3-8031-1197-8
The principles of human stupidity. From d. Italy. trans. by Moshe Kahn. Munich: Liebeskind 2018. ISBN 978-3-95438-086-2
  • Conquistadores, pirati, mercadanti. English: The Odyssey of Spanish Silver: Conquistadores, Pirates, Merchants. Wagenbach, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8031-3594-X
  • Vele e cannoni. English: Sails and Cannons: The European Expansion at Sea. Wagenbach, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-8031-3602-4
  • Tre storie extra vaganti. German: Money Adventure: Extra vagant stories from European business life. Wagenbach, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-8031-1150-1
  • Le macchine del tempo. L'orologio e la società (1300-1700). German: Counted time. How the mechanical watch changed life . Wagenbach, Berlin 2011. ISBN 978-3-8031-2665-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cipolla, as reported by the Italian language Wikipedia, is actually only called Carlo. He added the “M” as the middle name for two reasons: Because at least a second (abbreviated) first name is common in Anglo-Saxon countries, and because he didn't want to be confused with the historian of the same name. The “M” was subsequently interpreted as “Maria” (or “Manlio”) because the combination Carlo Maria is very common. In Cipolla's official documents there is neither “M” nor “Maria. Manlio can be found here, for example
  2. ^ Carlo M. Cipolla: Allegro ma non troppo. Translated from the Italian by Moshe Kahn . Klaus G Renner, Munich 1989. ISBN 978-3-927480-02-5 .
  3. ^ Carlo M. Cipolla: Allegro ma non troppo: The role of spices (especially pepper) for the economic development of the Middle Ages / The principles of human stupidity. Translated from the Italian by Moshe Kahn. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-596-10562-5 .
  4. ^ Carlo M. Cipolla: Allegro ma non troppo: The role of spices (especially pepper) for the economic development of the Middle Ages / The principles of human stupidity. Translated from the Italian by Moshe Kahn. Wagenbach, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-8031-1197-8 .
  5. ↑ The author speaks of the Leggi fondamentali . As an educated man, he knew the "fundamental laws of thermodynamics", to which he alludes ironically. In German this word joke has been lost due to the translation as “principles” in the otherwise excellent translation.
  6. ↑ a b to en: Carlo M. Cipolla and it: Carlo M. Cipolla


personal data
SURNAME Cipolla, Carlo M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cipolla, Carlo Maria; Cipolla, Carlo Manlio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian economic historian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Pavia
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 2000
Place of death Pavia