Friedman stripped corporate profit maximization of Knight’s built-in moral caveats

Evidence

In developing this argument, Friedman drew on Frank Knight’s aphorism that “business is business,” which Knight had defi ned as meaning that “business is one thing, and ‘charity’ another.” Knight, however, had accompanied that statement with a series of characteristic caveats: it assumed mutual free consent, which precluded the modes of persuasion often adopted in advertising; public engagement and oversight would be necessary to avoid externalities; and the pursuit of profi ts “must be sometimes seasoned with mercy.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 478

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the intellectual filiation/rupture within Chicago school itself; connects to the broader literature on how Milton Friedman radicalized Frank Knight’s position. — connects to: Knight shaped Friedman’s worldview about economics’ limits rather than specific doctrines. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 398; Profit maximization is antithetical to citizen well-being
• DEEPTHINKING: A precise genealogical point: the most famous slogan of shareholder capitalism inherits its phrasing from a thinker who hedged it with consent, externality, and mercy conditions — the departure itself is the historical event worth sitting with.

Broader Connections

• Knight shaped Friedman’s worldview about economics’ limits rather than specific doctrines. #qualifies (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 398
• Profit maximization is antithetical to citizen well-being #expands (0.72)