|
Economics of Good and Evil
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £3.75
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £3.75, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Beautifully written...A compulsive read (Samuel Brittan, Financial Times )
A Washington Post Politics 'Must Read' (Steven Levingston )
A Washington Post Politics 'Must Read' (Steven Levingston )
Product Description
Tomas Sedlacek has shaken the study of economics as few ever have. Named one of the "Young Guns" and one of the "five hot minds in economics" by the Yale Economic Review, he serves on the National Economic Council in Prague, where his provocative writing has achieved bestseller status. How has he done it? By arguing a simple, almost heretical proposition: economics is ultimately about good and evil. In The Economics of Good and Evil, Sedlacek radically rethinks his field, challenging our assumptions about the world. Economics is touted as a science, a value-free mathematical inquiry, he writes, but it's actually a cultural phenomenon, a product of our civilization. It began within philosophy--Adam Smith himself not only wrote The Wealth of Nations, but also The Theory of Moral Sentiments--and economics, as Sedlacek shows, is woven out of history, myth, religion, and ethics. "Even the most sophisticated mathematical model," Sedlacek writes, "is, de facto, a story, a parable, our effort to (rationally) grasp the world around us." Economics not only describes the world, but establishes normative standards, identifying ideal conditions. Science, he claims, is a system of beliefs to which we are committed. To grasp the beliefs underlying economics, he breaks out of the field's confines with a tour de force exploration of economic thinking, broadly defined, over the millennia. He ranges from the epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament to the emergence of Christianity, from Descartes and Adam Smith to the consumerism in Fight Club. Throughout, he asks searching meta-economic questions: What is the meaning and the point of economics? Can we do ethically all that we can do technically? Does it pay to be good? Placing the wisdom of philosophers and poets over strict mathematical models of human behavior, Sedlacek's groundbreaking work promises to change the way we calculate economic value.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Sedlacek contends that in modern economics reductionist view of humans as homo economicus, it has ignored, to its detriment, the ethical part of economics. In other words, contemporary economists have paid too much to descriptive or positive economics (what we do) at the expense of normative economics (what we should do). The result of this imbalance has been the West's naïve drive toward never ending growth that has led to crushing indebtedness and workaholism.
In short, Sedlacek wants to help us understand how various philosophical views influence our understanding of economics. Beginning with the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Sedlacek masterfully surveys economic thought to show how different perspectives concerning the nature of reality and the good life struggled with the practical questions of how to implement ideals into contemporary society given the tensions between nature/urban, reason/emotion, markets/governments, freedom/law etc.
Through this historical review, Sedlacek removes the certainty of the economic myths of our own day and causes us to reflect on what kind of life we want to live. The author doesn't provide an answer to our contemporary economic and social woes. While disappointed with this oversight, the text is valuable because by focusing on values it helps members of opposing camps to recharacterize the debate to one that will at least provide more clarity and less heat. If you doubt the role of values in economics then simply consider how two economists can look at the same economic data and suggest diametrically opposed governmental policies.
I commend the author for correcting the contemporary misunderstanding regarding Adam Smith's notion of self-interest. While his description of Hebraic and Christian economic views was generally quite good, he mistakenly read the economic thought of the New Testament through the lens of later Church leaders. This historical error, resulted in a greater polarization between Hebraic and New Testament thought than the evidence permits.
Nevertheless, the book is a welcome read not only because he writes well but because he causes you to reconsider your own economic biases. If you only think of economics as the "dismal science" then Sedlacek's Economics of Good and Evil will restore your interest in economics as an ethical discipline.
Stephen M. Vantassel is an environmental theologian who teaches at King's Evangelical Divinity School. He has written numerous articles and several books on wildlife.
In short, Sedlacek wants to help us understand how various philosophical views influence our understanding of economics. Beginning with the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Sedlacek masterfully surveys economic thought to show how different perspectives concerning the nature of reality and the good life struggled with the practical questions of how to implement ideals into contemporary society given the tensions between nature/urban, reason/emotion, markets/governments, freedom/law etc.
Through this historical review, Sedlacek removes the certainty of the economic myths of our own day and causes us to reflect on what kind of life we want to live. The author doesn't provide an answer to our contemporary economic and social woes. While disappointed with this oversight, the text is valuable because by focusing on values it helps members of opposing camps to recharacterize the debate to one that will at least provide more clarity and less heat. If you doubt the role of values in economics then simply consider how two economists can look at the same economic data and suggest diametrically opposed governmental policies.
I commend the author for correcting the contemporary misunderstanding regarding Adam Smith's notion of self-interest. While his description of Hebraic and Christian economic views was generally quite good, he mistakenly read the economic thought of the New Testament through the lens of later Church leaders. This historical error, resulted in a greater polarization between Hebraic and New Testament thought than the evidence permits.
Nevertheless, the book is a welcome read not only because he writes well but because he causes you to reconsider your own economic biases. If you only think of economics as the "dismal science" then Sedlacek's Economics of Good and Evil will restore your interest in economics as an ethical discipline.
Stephen M. Vantassel is an environmental theologian who teaches at King's Evangelical Divinity School. He has written numerous articles and several books on wildlife.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
What can one say about this splendid book. The first impression is of astonishment at the sheer depth of Sedlacek's reading. It is a very thorough book full of most interesting source literature going back well before the start of Christianity. In addition, even to a non-economist, this book is very readable.
The two main themes are firstly that economics is over-dominated by numerical analysis and needs to recover its ethical foundations as a social science. Economics is not the only field of policy thinking which puts too much stress on mathematics and technology at the expense of broader, more value-driven concerns - our educational thinking, for example, has also lost its way in a similar fashion.
Secondly comes the theme that our overconsumption of resources - consumption being self-exciting (my words) - with consumption stimulating yet more desire for goods - all fuelled by debt, have created an unsustainable future. As example of this, Sedlacek cites the current financial crisis with the strong possibility of further worse future events.
These are well-argued themes but do raise the question of how we change the way our societies operate. After all, our present insatiable desires keep our economies running and provide employment for many.
In addition to the main themes I have attempted to summarise above, there are many, many other fascinating insights to be had. This is an excellent book, which I can warmly recommend.
The two main themes are firstly that economics is over-dominated by numerical analysis and needs to recover its ethical foundations as a social science. Economics is not the only field of policy thinking which puts too much stress on mathematics and technology at the expense of broader, more value-driven concerns - our educational thinking, for example, has also lost its way in a similar fashion.
Secondly comes the theme that our overconsumption of resources - consumption being self-exciting (my words) - with consumption stimulating yet more desire for goods - all fuelled by debt, have created an unsustainable future. As example of this, Sedlacek cites the current financial crisis with the strong possibility of further worse future events.
These are well-argued themes but do raise the question of how we change the way our societies operate. After all, our present insatiable desires keep our economies running and provide employment for many.
In addition to the main themes I have attempted to summarise above, there are many, many other fascinating insights to be had. This is an excellent book, which I can warmly recommend.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
From descriptions on the cover, Tomas Sedlacek is an interesting man. A former economic advisor to Vaclav Havel, this book has been a best seller in the Czech Republic and even, apparently, converted into a play. This book reflects such a range having references to Douglas Adams, popular films such as the Matrix, and ancient myths as well as to the great economists.
This range of interests ties in with the aim of this book to reframe and broaden the subject of economics to reflect deeper aspects of human nature. In doing this he even looks at this from an archetypal nature, even drawing on some of Jung's ideas in this. If looking at archetypes is a feature of what is sometimes called depth-psychology, this book could be described as an exercise in depth-economics, because it looks deeply into the origins of ideas that underpin the subject, exploring these in greater depth than I have seen anywhere else- though Richard Bronk's The Romantic Economist: Imagination in Economics would make for an interesting comparison.
Sedlacek argues that economics reframes many ideas that come, on an archetypal level, from other sources. To demonstrate this he attempts what he wryly calls the first economics analysis of the Gilgamesh epic, showing how it reflects the conflict between the wild and the civilized, a dilemma at the heart of economics. He also looks into how ideas from the Bible (both ancient Jewish and Christian), the Ancient Greeks, rationalism, mathematics and even emotions colour and affect one's view of reality and hence an economic viewpoint.
Looking at contemporary economics with its complex mathematical models, Sedlacek is pragmatic, arguing they tell another and valid story. His approach is integrative, avoiding getting lost in feuds that have characterised the history of economics to this day. Or perhaps one should say the approach is re-integrative. As Sedlacek points out many great economists such as Adam Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and even Keynes have regarded the subject as a moral one, not a physical science. If economics is treated as a mathematical exercise, without morality, it becomes blind and ceases to tell us anything. In recognising the moral, economics is simply returning to its roots.
This is a thought provoking book, beautifully produced. It may change your view of economics, and maybe, even of human nature. Fritz Schumacher, who is quoted early in the book, once said that economics "is not a science it's a branch of human wisdom." Though the science aspect is honoured, there is a lot of wisdom in this book. It deserves to have the widest influence.
This range of interests ties in with the aim of this book to reframe and broaden the subject of economics to reflect deeper aspects of human nature. In doing this he even looks at this from an archetypal nature, even drawing on some of Jung's ideas in this. If looking at archetypes is a feature of what is sometimes called depth-psychology, this book could be described as an exercise in depth-economics, because it looks deeply into the origins of ideas that underpin the subject, exploring these in greater depth than I have seen anywhere else- though Richard Bronk's The Romantic Economist: Imagination in Economics would make for an interesting comparison.
Sedlacek argues that economics reframes many ideas that come, on an archetypal level, from other sources. To demonstrate this he attempts what he wryly calls the first economics analysis of the Gilgamesh epic, showing how it reflects the conflict between the wild and the civilized, a dilemma at the heart of economics. He also looks into how ideas from the Bible (both ancient Jewish and Christian), the Ancient Greeks, rationalism, mathematics and even emotions colour and affect one's view of reality and hence an economic viewpoint.
Looking at contemporary economics with its complex mathematical models, Sedlacek is pragmatic, arguing they tell another and valid story. His approach is integrative, avoiding getting lost in feuds that have characterised the history of economics to this day. Or perhaps one should say the approach is re-integrative. As Sedlacek points out many great economists such as Adam Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and even Keynes have regarded the subject as a moral one, not a physical science. If economics is treated as a mathematical exercise, without morality, it becomes blind and ceases to tell us anything. In recognising the moral, economics is simply returning to its roots.
This is a thought provoking book, beautifully produced. It may change your view of economics, and maybe, even of human nature. Fritz Schumacher, who is quoted early in the book, once said that economics "is not a science it's a branch of human wisdom." Though the science aspect is honoured, there is a lot of wisdom in this book. It deserves to have the widest influence.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
