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Economics is often referred to as ""the queen of social sciences."" This is because mainstream economics has been established as an elegant academic discipline by assuming mankind simply to be homo economicus—an image of human beings showing interest in only material fulfilment and acting solely in his interest. This book challenges this basic perception of human beings. By replacing it with a more realistic and multi-faceted human motive as supported by research in various academic disciplines, the book tries to provide a novel and more plausible picture of human society. Specifically, the book takes in such human aspects as pursuing wellbeing, forming human networks, and the realization of potential of ability. Thus, if we try to better understand human motives and the society, it becomes necessary to replace the conventional two-sector (market-government) social model with a more general and theoretically superior social model, the ""three-sector model"" consisting of market-government-nonprofit sectors. This book demonstrates the validity of this new view by utilizing basic principles of economic policy and social welfare analyses. Moreover, the book has introduced a newly developing practical philosophy in Japan over the last 50 years to achieve both individual wellbeing and better human society.

An Economic Philosophy of Production, Work and Consumption presents a new transhistorical framework of defining production, work and consumption. It shows that they all share the common feature of intentional physical transformation of something external to the agent, at some point in time. The book opens with a discussion of various theoretical traditions within economics, spanning mainstream and heterodox perspectives, and problems with production definitions in use today. Next, the author outlines various definitions in a more formal manner and provides a discussion on measurement and the production boundary. Unproductive work is redefined as socially reproductive, i.e. such that would not be performed on a Robinson Crusoe Island. Finally, the volume applies the new conceptual framework to various historical cases and discusses the future of production, work and consumption. This essential volume will be of interest to scholars of economic philosophy and methodology, the history of economic thought, economic history and national accounting.

The modern global economy and discipline of economics place mathematical calculation above human concern. However, a re-reading of Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy can positively highlight the contrast in values and spirit of the early medieval European world with our own scientific age. This book discusses the historical and cultural contexts that influenced Boethius’ writing and explores how Consolation offers a radically different understanding of economic concepts: wealth from inner happiness and virtues, poverty from hoarding outer possessions, self-sufficiency in the greater whole, enlightenment through misfortune, and development as fruition from the Good. These economic considerations resonate with a range of heterodox economic perspectives, such as Ecological and Buddhist Economics. The fundamental revaluations gained through Boethius pose a critique of mainstream neoclassical and neoliberal economics: to consumerism, avarice, growth and technology fetishism, and market rationality. These economic foundations resonate into a time when global crises raise the question of fundamental human priorities, offering alternatives to an ever-expanding industrial market economy designed for profit, and helping to avoid irrevocable socio-ecological disasters. The issues raised and questioned in this book will be of significant interest to readers with concern for pluralist approaches to economics, philosophy, classics, ancient history and theology.

This book examines the writings of seven English women economists from the period 1735–1811. It reveals that contrary to what standard accounts of the history of economic thought suggest, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century women intellectuals were undertaking incisive and gender-sensitive analyses of the economy. Women’s Economic Thought in the Romantic Age argues that established notions of what constitutes economic enquiry, topics, and genres of writing have for centuries marginalised the perspectives and experiences of women and obscured the knowledge they recorded in novels, memoirs, or pamphlets. This has led to an underrepresentation of women in the canon of economic theory. Using insights from literary studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and feminist economics, the book develops a transdisciplinary methodology that redresses this imbalance and problematises the distinction between literary and economic texts. In its in-depth readings of selected writings by Sarah Chapone, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Hays, Mary Robinson, Priscilla Wakefield, Mary Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen, this book uncovers the originality and topicality of their insights on the economics of marriage, women and paid work, and moral economics. Combining historical analysis with conceptual revision, Women’s Economic Thought in the Romantic Age retrieves women’s overlooked intellectual contributions and radically breaks down the barriers between literature and economics. It will be of interest to researchers and students from across the humanities and social sciences, in particular the history of economic thought, English literary and cultural studies, gender studies, economics, eighteenth-century and Romantic studies, social history, and the history of ideas.

"A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.tandfebooks.com as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project. This book considers the relationship between Hayek and Mill, taking issues with Hayek’s criticism of Mill and providing a broader perspective of the liberal tradition. Featuring contributions from the likes of Ross Emmett, Leon Montes and Robert Garnett, these chapters ask whether Hayek had an accurate reading of the ideas of Mill and Smith, as well as considering themes such as sympathy and analytical egalitarianism that play a large part in the liberal tradition, but less in work of Hayek These chapters argue that addition of these key ideas to the Hayekian corpus leads to a far broader understanding of the liberal tradition than that provided by Hayek "

Whether a theoretical system is realistic or not has been a concern in economics, particularly in monetary theory, over the past century. Following John R. Hicks’ proposal that a realistic monetary theory could be constructed along an evolutionary path, starting with the workings of a real market, this volume considers whether we can look to the medieval economy as the point of departure. Drawing upon the work of Aristotle, scholastic economists, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, William Stanley Jevons, Léon Walras and many modern monetary theorists, this intriguing book provides a critical analysis of some basic theories of monetary analysis. Concentrating primarily on certain fundamental building blocks it covers: the theory and mathematical properties of barter and monetary relations the distinction between barter and monetary relations and money and non-money commodities the concept of exchange as an equation, and the notion of the exchange relation as a relation of equality. This groundbreaking study dispels some of the old myths and conjectures concerning money and exchange and opens up the way for the development of new approaches, both realistic and evolutionary, of interest to researchers and students of the history of monetary theory and economic thought.

In this thought-provoking book, well known economists Kurz and Salvadori cover original findings and new vistas on old problems. They cover: alternative interpretations of classical economists new growth theory the relationship between Sraffian theory and Von Neumann the treatment of capital in neoclassical long-period theory. Incorporating cutting-edge research and new work, this book will be of great interest to those working in the field of the history of economic thought.