Freedom, Authority and Economics: Essays on Michael Polanyi's Politics and Economics

Freedom, Authority and Economics: Essays on Michael Polanyi's Politics and Economics PDF

Author: R. T. Allen

Publisher: Vernon Press

Published: 2019-08-05

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1622732715

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This edited volume of original contributions deals with the economic and political thought of Michael Polanyi. Requiring little prior knowledge of Polanyi, this volume further develops a somewhat neglected side of Polanyi's work. In particular it examines the 'tacit integration', of subsidiary details into focal objects or actions as central to all knowing and action. It traces ontological counterparts in the structures of comprehensive entities and complex actions, and a multi-level universe in which lower levels have their boundary conditions, the extents to which they apply, determined by those of the next higher level, whilst each possessing its own laws or operative principles. This schema of 'dual control' preserves the reality and relative autonomy of each level, and its interactions with others, against the various reductions. The essays in this volume also employ and develop important additional concepts and distinctions such as: 'corporate' and 'spontaneous' order; 'public' and 'private' liberties; 'general' and 'specific authority'; and 'moral inversion'; which, as the essays show, are necessary for understanding and maintaining a free society and the freedom of institutions within it. Among the topics treated with them are: more of the prerequisites of freedom in public liberties dedicated to principles and transcendent values; totalitarianism and society as spontaneous order; the balance of general and specific authority in society and particular institutions; reductionism, totalitarianism and consumption in consumer societies, as moral inversions; the mutual interactions of economics and politics as distinct and autonomous but interacting levels; the sociological aspects of economics; and Polanyi's own contributions to sociology. Although, as indicated, Polanyi has his special terms, the essays in this volume, like his works, give them meaning with concrete examples and so avoid merely shuffling a mass of abstractions. Together the essays show that his work is a rich seam of ideas and inspiration for yet further extension and application.

Freedom, Authority and Economics

Freedom, Authority and Economics PDF

Author: Klaus Allerbeck

Publisher: Vernon Press

Published: 2017-03-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781622732104

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The essays in this volume deal with the economic and political thought of Michael Polanyi. Requiring little prior knowledge of Polanyi, the essays in this volume further develop a somewhat neglected side of Polanyi's work. In particular it examines the 'tacit integration', of subsidiary details into focal objects or actions as central to all knowing and action. The essays in this volume trace ontological counterparts in the structures of comprehensive entities and complex actions, and a multi-level universe in which lower levels have their boundary conditions, the extents to which they apply, determined by those of the next higher level, whilst each possessing its own laws or operative principles. This schema of 'dual control' preserves the reality and relative autonomy of each level, and its interactions with others, against the various reductions. The essays in this volume also employ and develop important further concepts and distinctions such as: 'corporate' and 'spontaneous' order; 'public' and 'private' liberties; 'general' and 'specific authority'; and 'moral inversion'; which, as the essays show, are necessary for understanding and maintaining a free society and the freedom of institutions within it. Among the topics treated with them are: more of the prerequisites of freedom in public liberties dedicated to principles and transcendent values; totalitarianism and society as spontaneous order; the balance of general and specific authority in society and particular institutions; reductionism, totalitarianism and consumption in consumer societies, as moral inversions; the mutual interactions of economics and politics as distinct and autonomous but interacting levels; the sociological aspects of economics; and Polanyi's own contributions to sociology. Although, as indicated, Polanyi has his special terms, the essays in this volume, like his works, give them meaning with concrete examples and so avoid merely shuffling a mass of abstractions. Together the essays show that his work is a rich seam of ideas and inspiration for yet further extension and application.

Society, Economics, and Philosophy

Society, Economics, and Philosophy PDF

Author: Michael Polanyi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-28

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1351489097

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Society, Economics and Philosophy represents the full range of Polanyi's interests outside of his scientific work: economics, politics, society, philosophy of science, religion and positivist obstacles to it, and art. Polanyi's principal ideas are contained in three essays: on the scientific revolution, the creative imagination and the mind-body relation. Precisely because of Polanyi's work in the physical sciences, his writings have a unique dimension not found in other advocates of the market and too infrequently found even in philosophers of science.Polanyi was a powerful critic of totalitarianism and of the deficiencies of the usual defenses of freedom which helped to prepare the way for it. Freedom, he argued, can be based only upon truth and dedication to transcendent ideals, not upon skepticism, utilitarianism and the liberty of doing merely as one pleases. At a time when easy slogans about socialism were dominant in intellectual circles, epitomized by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, and when calls for the central planning of scientific research were made by such as J.D. Bernal, Polanyi exposed their errors and showed that science can flourish only in a free society.More radically than even von Mises and Hayek, Polanyi showed that an industrial economy can operate only polycentrically, that central planning is logically impossible, and that what was called by that name in the Soviet Union was in reality no such thing. Likewise, scientific research can proceed, not by a central plan, but only by the spontaneous self-adjustment of separate initiatives to discover a common reality. Against the positivism dominant within philosophy of science, he argued that the notion of reality must be restored and made central. Yet physical sciences, he also argued, are only one branch of science, and the sciences of life and mind are logically richer and more complex and cannot be reduced to the former, nor mind to body or to computers, nor art to its ph

The Economic Thought of Michael Polanyi

The Economic Thought of Michael Polanyi PDF

Author: Gábor Biró

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-24

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1000084833

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Michael Polanyi is most famous for his work in chemistry and the philosophy of science, but in the 1930s and 1940s he made an important contribution to economics. Drawing on rich archival materials on Polanyi and his correspondents, Gábor Biró explores their competing worldviews and their struggles to popularise their visions of the economy, economic expertise and democracy. Special focus is given to Polanyi’s pioneering economics film and postmodern ideas. This volume will be of interest to advanced students and researchers of the history of economics, philosophy of science, and science and technology studies.

For a New West

For a New West PDF

Author: Karl Polanyi

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-11-10

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0745684475

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At a recent meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, it was reported that a ghost was haunting the deliberations of the assembled global elite - that of the renowned social scientist and economic historian, Karl Polanyi. In his classic work, The Great Transformation, Polanyi documented the impact of the rise of market society on western civilization and captured better than anyone else the destructive effects of the economic, political and social crisis of the 1930s. Today, in the throes of another Great Recession, Polanyi’s work has gained a new significance. To understand the profound challenges faced by our democracies today, we need to revisit history and revisit his work. In this new collection of unpublished texts - lectures, draft essays and reports written between 1919 and 1958 - Polanyi examines the collapse of the liberal economic order and the demise of democracies in the inter-war years. He takes up again the fundamental question that preoccupied him throughout his work - the place of the economy in society - and aims to show how we might return to an economy anchored in society and its cultural, religious and political institutions. For anyone concerned about the danger to democracy and social life posed by the unleashing of capital from regulatory control and the dominance of the neoliberal ideologies of market fundamentalism, this important new volume by one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century is a must-read.

The Logic of Personal Knowledge

The Logic of Personal Knowledge PDF

Author: Polanyi Festschrift Committee

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-06-05

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1317440226

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Originally published in 1961. Michael Polanyi was a polymath who influenced economics and the sciences as well as philosophy. His wide-ranging research in physical science is as well-known as his work on freedom and knowledge and his arguments against positivism and reductionism. This collection of essays written for him touches on all aspects of his influence but rotates around his published lectures Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. The contributors address four areas – The Scientist as Knower, Historical Perspectives, The Knowledge of Society and the Knowledge of Living Things.

The Life and Work of Karl Polanyi

The Life and Work of Karl Polanyi PDF

Author: Kari Levitt

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13:

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This book developes Karl Polanyi's thinking for its significance in the practice of economics and everyday life in democratic societies, and also treats the life of Polanyi from a perspective that conveys an impression of the man, his times, and his place in the evolution of social and economic thought. Karl Polanyi believed that the greatest threat to freedom was a poorly administered economy. His search for economic and political institutions which reconciled society's need for freedom to develop a moral sense, with the requirements of our complex technological civilization, led him to believe in the possibility and necessity of an economics that was more existential and human-centred. He did not underestimate the significance of livelihood to lives. He emphasized nonetheless tht beyond sufficient livelihood, preoccupation with the pursuit of even more economic wealth greatly erodes the quality of human existence.

Humanity and Nature in Economic Thought

Humanity and Nature in Economic Thought PDF

Author: Gábor Bíró

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-29

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1000476960

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Humanity and Nature in Economic Thought: Searching for the Organic Origins of the Economy argues that organic elements seen as incompatible with rational homo economicus have been left out of, or downplayed in, mainstream histories of economic thought. The chapters show that organic aspects (that is, aspects related to sensitive, cognitive or social human qualities) were present in the economic ideas of a wide range of important thinkers including Hume, Smith, Malthus, Mill, Marshall, Keynes, Hayek and the Polanyi brothers. Moreover, the contributors to this thought-provoking volume reveal in turn that these aspects were crucial to how these key figures thought about the economy. This stimulating collection of essays will be of interest to advanced students and scholars of the history of economic thought, economic philosophy, heterodox economics, moral philosophy and intellectual history.

Political Economy and Freedom

Political Economy and Freedom PDF

Author: G. Warren Nutter

Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : Liberty Press

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13:

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These thirty-three essays, many of them previously unpublished, illustrate the broad range of Warren Nutter's thought. There are essays on the Soviet economy and international relations as well as essays exploring the economic institutions that support a society of free people. One finds in these essays a man of intellect and judgment ever ready to look at the evidence and ever willing to admit imperfections of even the best human institutions. He defends capitalism not because it is perfect but because for this imperfect world it is superior to the attainable alternatives. G. Warren Nutter (1923-1979) taught economics at the University of Virginia. Paul Craig Roberts is a distinguished fellow at the Cato Institute.

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