The End of Economic ManThe End of Economic Man
An Introduction to Humanistic Economics
Title rated 0 out of 5 stars, based on 0 ratings(0 ratings)
Book, 2001
Current format, Book, 2001, 4th ed, No Longer Available.Book, 2001
Current format, Book, 2001, 4th ed, No Longer Available. Offered in 0 more formatsThis is a book for businesspeople, poets, politicians, critics, engineers, scientists, lawyers, doctors, and plain citizens. Economists can learn from it. It introduces us to an essential aspect of life in a free society in which men and women are thinkers of their own thoughts, doers of their own deeds, and providers of their own sustenance.
It places economics firmly among the humanities. Like all the humanities, economics studies the doings of human beings with the aim of understanding mores, morals, and morale. In contrast, the Economic Man of traditional economics is selfishness incarnate. Most of the so-called laws of economics have been deduced from his consistently self-serving behavior, with the result that the discipline seems to be concerned solely with things - resources, the gross domestic product, the bottom line, some sort of equilibrium - rather than with human beings.
In any future economics, George Brockway proposes, this concern will be reversed. Human beings will be more important that things, and what Carlyle quite properly called the dismal science will take on a new and humane aspect.
Like the good life it celebrates, the book requires thought and stimulates thought, starting with the Prologue, "Life Is Unfair. Why Should We Care?" Throughout the book original theory is intertwined with practical example, as in the chapter titled "Why the Trade Deficit Won't Go Away." Completely rewritten, this edition (the fourth) covers almost forty percent more ground than earlier editions.
When Adam Smith pioneered modern economics in the eighteenth century, it was a branch of philosophy. By the close of the nineteenth century, economists had discovered the usefulness of mathematical tools from classical mechanics, and by the end of the twentieth visions of clicking pool balls reigned supreme. Except for one insightful critic: George Brockway. First writing for The New Leader and then in this seminal text, Brockway skewered mainstream economists who assumed away the free will of participants in the economy.This book establishes an economics in which men and women are not ceramic spheres subject only to cold, mathematical forecasts, but free human beings who are responsible for their actions and can find in this critical supposition the foundations of mores, morals, and morale. Now thoroughly revised, it is for anyone who has suspected that the economy is too important to be left to economists.
Adam Smith and his intellectual heirs invented economic man as a helpless victim of his own relentless selfishness, profit or utility maximizers, social class, bottom lines, some kind of equilibrium, and other non-animate forces. Brockway introduces an economics in which agents are autonomous doers of their own deeds, actors responsible for their own actions, free human beings. He writes for general readers, but suggests that maybe even some economists could learn something here. Earlier editions appeared from 1991 to 1995. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
A compelling argument for returning economics to the philosophy department places free will at the center of economic theory as the centerpiece of understanding the movements of markets and money around the world.
The book that took the mystery out of economics and put free will back in.
It places economics firmly among the humanities. Like all the humanities, economics studies the doings of human beings with the aim of understanding mores, morals, and morale. In contrast, the Economic Man of traditional economics is selfishness incarnate. Most of the so-called laws of economics have been deduced from his consistently self-serving behavior, with the result that the discipline seems to be concerned solely with things - resources, the gross domestic product, the bottom line, some sort of equilibrium - rather than with human beings.
In any future economics, George Brockway proposes, this concern will be reversed. Human beings will be more important that things, and what Carlyle quite properly called the dismal science will take on a new and humane aspect.
Like the good life it celebrates, the book requires thought and stimulates thought, starting with the Prologue, "Life Is Unfair. Why Should We Care?" Throughout the book original theory is intertwined with practical example, as in the chapter titled "Why the Trade Deficit Won't Go Away." Completely rewritten, this edition (the fourth) covers almost forty percent more ground than earlier editions.
When Adam Smith pioneered modern economics in the eighteenth century, it was a branch of philosophy. By the close of the nineteenth century, economists had discovered the usefulness of mathematical tools from classical mechanics, and by the end of the twentieth visions of clicking pool balls reigned supreme. Except for one insightful critic: George Brockway. First writing for The New Leader and then in this seminal text, Brockway skewered mainstream economists who assumed away the free will of participants in the economy.This book establishes an economics in which men and women are not ceramic spheres subject only to cold, mathematical forecasts, but free human beings who are responsible for their actions and can find in this critical supposition the foundations of mores, morals, and morale. Now thoroughly revised, it is for anyone who has suspected that the economy is too important to be left to economists.
Adam Smith and his intellectual heirs invented economic man as a helpless victim of his own relentless selfishness, profit or utility maximizers, social class, bottom lines, some kind of equilibrium, and other non-animate forces. Brockway introduces an economics in which agents are autonomous doers of their own deeds, actors responsible for their own actions, free human beings. He writes for general readers, but suggests that maybe even some economists could learn something here. Earlier editions appeared from 1991 to 1995. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
A compelling argument for returning economics to the philosophy department places free will at the center of economic theory as the centerpiece of understanding the movements of markets and money around the world.
The book that took the mystery out of economics and put free will back in.
Title availability
Find this title on
College of San Mateo LibrariesAbout
Opinion
More from the community
Community lists featuring this title
There are no community lists featuring this title
Community contributions
There are no quotations from this title
There are no quotations from this title
From the community