Markets, Morals and Religion

The examination of the relationship of economic activity to other important aspects of human life and social behavior has inspired some of the most interesting and provocative social-scientific research in the past one hundred years. This book of original essays by leading thinkers across many disciplines offers new insights into enduring questions about how modern and modernizing market economies are both shaped by and shapers of morality, values, and religion. Part 1, "Markets and Morals," offers eight contributors who provide analyses of the various ways in which the market operates in relation to morality. An empirical presentation of moral values and market attitudes is given. Other essays take aim at how markets serve and disserve moral interests: Economic growth has moral consequences; the manipulation of markets exposes a moral underside; the nature of market failure has implications for understanding moral vulnerability; preference change has moral implications. In other chapters, a broad consideration of the positive moral effects of market economies is offered along with historical essays on the role that intellectuals have played in debates about the positive and negative effects of commercial life and on the ways in which the American idea of the pursuit of happiness reveals much about the morality of economic life. In Part 2, "Markets and Religion," nine contributors address both the historical and contemporary emergence of religious factors in the growth and transformation of global capitalism. Major religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are examined for their contributions to answering questions about the nature and function of economic life in light of religious ideas and ideals. Several essays present original approaches to the importance of religious values to modern forms of consumption and to the political economy of reconciliation and forgiveness in nations coming to terms with past conflict. Finally, the influence of non-Western ideas, in particular Chinese religions and Buddhism on economic thought and practice, is assessed as part of the globalizing impact of religion on economic life generally.

ISBN 1412806666   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9781412806664 (What's this?)   Pages 256 Publisher Transaction Publishers   Volumes 1 Imprint Transaction Publishers   Weight (grammes) 381 Format Paperback   Published in Somerset, NJ Publication date 15 Dec 2006   Height (mm) 229 Writer of preface Peter L. Berger   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress 2007031524   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY 174   Academic level Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly

1		Three Hundred Years of Positive Moral Effects of the Market by Jerry Z. Muller		23
2		The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth by Benjamin M. Friedman		29
3		Moral Values and Market Attitudes by Wayne Baker and Melissa Forbes		43
4		State-Manipulated Markets and Morals: Degussa in the Third Reich by Peter Hayes		51
5		The Moral Implications of Preference Change by David George		61
6		Market Failure for the Treatment of Animals by Tyler Cowen		73
7		Western Intellectuals and Commercial Society by Alan Kahan		83
8		The Market and the Pursuit of Happiness by Darrin M. McMahon		99
9		Welfare, Property and the Divine Image in Jewish Law and Thought by Joseph Isaac Lifshitz		117
10		Capitalism in Religious Zionist Theory by Alan Mittleman		131
11		Ambivalent Embrace: Islamic Economics and Global Capitalism by Robert W. Hefner		141
12		Pentecostalism and Economic Development by Robert D. Woodberry		157
13		Counting One's Blessings: The Economic Values of Russian Orthodox Christians by Christopher Marsh		179
14		The Consumer Market and the Origins of the African American Holiness Movement by John M. Giggie		191
15		The Political Economy of Forgiveness by Peter Boettke and Christopher J. Coyne		207
16		Mitch Kapor and the Roots of an Enlightened Economics by Christal Whelan		221
17		Within and Beyond the Market: Religions, Moralities, and Philanthropies in Chinese Societies by Robert P. Weller		231

 Be the first to write a customer review