Tomas Sedlacek has shaken up the study of economics like few others have managed. Recognized as 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 of Prague, where his provocative writing has achieved bestseller status. How has he accomplished this? By advocating a simple, almost heretical proposition: economics ultimately concerns good and evil.
In his book "The Economics of Good and Evil," Sedlacek radically revolutionizes the field by questioning our assumptions about the world. Economics is often presented as a science, as a value-neutral mathematical inquiry, but in reality it is a cultural phenomenon, a product of our civilization. It started with philosophy - Adam Smith himself wrote not only "The Wealth of Nations" but also "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" - and economics, as Sedlacek shows, is woven from history, myth, religion, and ethics.
"Even the most complex mathematical model," writes Sedlacek, "is, de facto, a story, a parable, our attempt to logically understand the world around us." Economics not only describes the world but also sets normative standards, defining ideal conditions. Sedlacek argues that science is a belief system to which we are committed. To understand the beliefs underlying economics, he frees himself from the constraints of the field, with an in-depth exploration of economic thought, broadly defined, over the millennia.
From the epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament to the rise of Christianity, from Descartes and Adam Smith to consumerism in Fight Club, Sedlacek poses subversive meta-economic questions: What is the meaning and purpose of economics? Can we do morally all we can do technically? Is it worth being good?
Sedlacek's groundbreaking work, placing the wisdom of philosophers and poets above strict mathematical models of human behavior, promises to change the way we calculate economic value.
Pages: 384, Dimensions: 23.5x23.5cm
