Author: Joel Vos Publisher: University Professors Press ISBN: 193968658X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 764
Book Description
There is not such a thing as value-free economics. All economic theories prescribe a unique meaning in life. What meanings are hidden in economic theories? How can we live a meaningful life despite the meanings that economists and politicians promote? The Economics of Meaning in Life offers a unique multidisciplinary study that systematically examines the meanings that are often hidden in economic and political debates. This book starts with a brief world history of how people have experienced meaning in different economic systems. For example, authors on capitalism often have a rational focus on materialistic and self-oriented types of meaning in life. Subsequently, the book describes research showing that many individuals feel taken hostage by this capitalist perspective, but simultaneously defend its meanings. This is the Capitalist Life Syndrome, named after the Stockholm Syndrome where hostages like their hostage-takers and develop a psychological alliance with them. Similar to the Communist Life Syndrome, individuals take over this capitalist approach to meaning even though these syndromes may not be good for their mental health. In response to the Capitalist Life Syndrome, increasing numbers of people want personal and societal change. A review of research discussed in the book shows that increasing numbers of people have started to focus on social and larger types of meaning since the 2007/2008 market crash: the meaning-oriented economy. Many aspects of the economy are transforming, from personal job-motivation to organisation structures, human resource management, and production. People search for new meaning within, outside, against, and beyond capitalism. This meaning-oriented trend is the future of economics, according to leaders in for example the World Economic Forum. This is the first book to integrate systematic empirical studies on meaning in life with economic theory, written by a leading researcher on meaning. The author makes his insights accessible with examples ranging from conversations with London CEO’s and Ugandan orphans to political uprisings in Latin America, environmentalist campaigns, and COVID-19. The author defends the human right to a meaningful life and recommends practical meaning-oriented steps for political campaigners. The Economics of Meaning in Life is for all readers who are interested in the real life-world hiding behind the veils of traditional economics and politics. This book should be required reading for all students of economics, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. Because everyone deserves a meaningful life.
Author: Lall Ramrattan Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 3031170652 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 345
Book Description
This book is a compilation of economic views on the purpose of life. It follows a unique approach, starting with propositions from diverse fields that act as governing laws of the purpose of life in economics, then guiding the reader through the physical, philosophical, and psychological views of the purpose of life, as economics and economic theories can find their roots in all these areas. The book concludes with the purpose of life presented through economic doctrines (from the pre-classical, to classical, to neo-classical schools of economic thought), through the lens of economic development, and from the perspective of several religious doctrines.
Author: Susan Wolf Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691154503 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 161
Book Description
Most people, including philosophers, tend to classify human motives as falling into one of two categories: the egoistic or the altruistic, the self-interested or the moral. According to Susan Wolf, however, much of what motivates us does not comfortably fit into this scheme. Often we act neither for our own sake nor out of duty or an impersonal concern for the world. Rather, we act out of love for objects that we rightly perceive as worthy of love--and it is these actions that give meaning to our lives. Wolf makes a compelling case that, along with happiness and morality, this kind of meaningfulness constitutes a distinctive dimension of a good life. Written in a lively and engaging style, and full of provocative examples, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters is a profound and original reflection on a subject of permanent human concern.
Author: Robert J. Shiller Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691212074 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 408
Book Description
From Nobel Prize–winning economist and New York Times bestselling author Robert Shiller, a groundbreaking account of how stories help drive economic events—and why financial panics can spread like epidemic viruses Stories people tell—about financial confidence or panic, housing booms, or Bitcoin—can go viral and powerfully affect economies, but such narratives have traditionally been ignored in economics and finance because they seem anecdotal and unscientific. In this groundbreaking book, Robert Shiller explains why we ignore these stories at our peril—and how we can begin to take them seriously. Using a rich array of examples and data, Shiller argues that studying popular stories that influence individual and collective economic behavior—what he calls "narrative economics"—may vastly improve our ability to predict, prepare for, and lessen the damage of financial crises and other major economic events. The result is nothing less than a new way to think about the economy, economic change, and economics. In a new preface, Shiller reflects on some of the challenges facing narrative economics, discusses the connection between disease epidemics and economic epidemics, and suggests why epidemiology may hold lessons for fighting economic contagions.
Author: Patricia J. Lopez Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 131761691X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 198
Book Description
Economies of Death: Economic Logics of Killable Life and Grievable Death examines the economic logic involved in determining whose lives and deaths come to matter and why. Drawing from eight distinct case studies focused on the killability and grievability of certain humans, animals, and environmental systems, this book advances an intersectional theory of economies of death. A key feature of late-modern capitalism is its tendency to economically order certain human and nonhuman lives and environments, while appropriating and commodifying certain bodies and spaces in the process. Spanning the social sciences and humanities in its contributions and scope, each chapter shows how living beings and places are stripped down to the calculus of their end, with profound ethical and political implications for these entities and the world around them. From the genocide in Cambodia to the way some animals are considered ‘pets’ and others ‘food’; from September 11, 2001 and Afghanistan to the politics of redemption for prisoners and ex-racehorses in Kentucky, these case studies draw from and develop an enriched understanding of bio- and necropolitics, posthumanism, killability and grievability. In drawing together the objectification of humans, animals and environments (and the power-laden hierarchies that maintain this objectification), this volume highlights how death across these subjects informs and responds to broader geo-economic processes. This book aims to examine the reach of economies of death across such diverse subjects, challenging readers to consider the every-day calculus they make in determining whose lives mean more and why.
Author: Tomas Sedlacek Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 9780199831906 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 376
Book 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.
Author: Robert E. Quinn Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers ISBN: 1523086424 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 216
Book Description
Two distinguished scholars offer eight steps to help organizations discover and embrace an authentic higher purpose—something that will dramatically improve every aspect of any enterprise, including the bottom line. What does a lofty notion like purpose have to do with business basics like the bottom line? Robert E. Quinn and Anjan J. Thakor say pretty much everything. Leaders and managers are taught that employees are self-interested and work resistant, so they create systems of control to combat these expectations. Workers resent these systems, and performance suffers. To address the performance issues, managers double down on the coercion, creating a vicious cycle and a self-fulfilling prophecy. But there is a better way. Quinn and Thakor show that when an authentic higher purpose permeates business strategy and decision-making, the cycle is broken. Employers and employees see themselves as working together toward an inspiring goal, not just trying to hit quarterly targets. They fully engage, become proactive contributors, and, ironically, easily exceed those quarterly targets. Based on their widely acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, Quinn and Thakor offer eight sometimes surprising steps for shifting from a transaction-oriented mind-set focused on constraints to a purpose-oriented mind-set focused on possibility. This iconoclastic book will help any organization discover its authentic purpose and weave it into the fabric of everything it does, leading to unprecedented levels of personal satisfaction, service and product innovation, and economic growth.
Author: George Loewenstein Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation ISBN: 1610443667 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 584
Book Description
How do people decide whether to sacrifice now for a future reward or to enjoy themselves in the present? Do the future gains of putting money in a pension fund outweigh going to Hawaii for New Year's Eve? Why does a person's self-discipline one day often give way to impulsive behavior the next? Time and Decision takes up these questions with a comprehensive collection of new research on intertemporal choice, examining how people face the problem of deciding over time. Economists approach intertemporal choice by means of a model in which people discount the value of future events at a constant rate. A vacation two years from now is worth less to most people than a vacation next week. Psychologists, on the other hand, have focused on the cognitive and emotional underpinnings of intertemporal choice. Time and Decision draws from both disciplinary approaches to provide a comprehensive picture of the various layers of choice involved. Shane Frederick, George Loewenstein, and Ted O'Donoghue introduce the volume with an overview of the research on time discounting and focus on how people actually discount the future compared to the standard economic model. Alex Kacelnik discusses the crucial role that the ability to delay gratification must have played in evolution. Walter Mischel and colleagues review classic research showing that four year olds who are able to delay gratification subsequently grow up to perform better in college than their counterparts who chose instant gratification. The book also delves into the neurobiology of patience, examining the brain structures involved in the ability to withstand an impulse. Turning to the issue of self-control, Klaus Wertenbroch examines the relationship between consumption and available resources, showing, for example, how a high credit limit can lead people to overspend. Ted O'Donoghue and Matthew Rabin show how people's awareness of their self-control problems affects their decision-making. The final section of the book examines intertemporal choice with regard to health, drug addiction, dieting, marketing, savings, and public policy. All of us make important decisions every day-many of which profoundly affect the quality of our lives. Time and Decision provides a fascinating look at the complex factors involved in how and why we make our choices, so many of them short-sighted, and helps us understand more precisely this crucial human frailty.
Author: Joel Vos
Author: Lall Ramrattan
Author: Joel Vos
Author: Susan Wolf
Author: Robert J. Shiller
Author: Patricia J. Lopez
Author: Tomas Sedlacek
Author: Robert E. Quinn
Author: George Loewenstein
Author: Martha Nussbaum