Foundations for a Humanitarian Economy

<p>The modern global economy and discipline of economics place mathematical calculation above human concern. However a re-reading of Boethius' <i>The Consolation of Philosophy</i> can positively highlight the contrast in values and spirit of the early medieval European world with our own scientific age.</p> <p>This book discusses the historical and cultural contexts that influenced Boethius' writing and explores how <i>Consolation</i> 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. </p> <p>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.</p>