Book review: Christian Arnsperger (existential ethics of economics)

Critics of Capitalistic Existence

Published in French - "Critique de l'existence capitaliste - Pour une éthique existentielle de l'économie ISBN 978-2-204-07694-4

Ambitious and original insight into the strong underlying relationships between the "logics" of economic systems and the existential mechanisms of human beings. The author convincingly explains why changes toward a "just society" is constantly (and often unconsciously) undermined by the deep-rooted existential anguish related to our finite existence and fear of death.

Processes of production, consumption and accumulation should be seen not only as economic processes and political choices. Capitalistic "winners" and "losers" are engaged in the same compulsive spiral of trying to "blind" their existential anguish.

This is an erudite but readily accessible to non-philosophers & non-economists. It makes the necessary bridges between very different fields of expertise, and focuses on making sense in our daily lives.

And somehow it is optimistic: understanding those existential mechanisms leads to imagining possible paths toward a "just society", where all human beings have a truly equal access to full self-determination.

Check Christian Arnsperger's blog for much more.

For those fluent in English, Routledge has published two excellent books of Chr. Arnsperger:

Full-spectrum economics: Toward an inclusive and emancipatory social science

Critical political economy: Complexity, rationality, and the logic of post-orthodox pluralism