Great Economic Thinkers presents an accessible introduction to the lives and works of thirteen of the most influential economists of modern times: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes, and Nobel Prize winners Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, John Forbes Nash, Jr., Daniel Kahneman, Amartya Sen, and Joseph Stiglitz. Free from confusing jargon and equations, the book describes key concepts put forward by these thinkers and shows how they have come to shape how we see ourselves and our society. Readers will consider the role played by the division of labor, wages and rents, cognitive biases, saving, entrepreneurship, game theory, liberalism, laissez-faire, and welfare economics. All of the economists featured have had a profound influence on our attitudes towards market intervention and regulation, taxation, trade, and monetary policy. Each of the chapters—all written by an acknowledged expert—combines a biographical outline of a single thinker with critical analysis of their contribution to economic thought. If you’ve ever wanted to find out more about the theorists who gave us the invisible hand, Marxism, Keynesianism, creative destruction, behavioral economics, and many other foundational concepts of economics, this collection of essays is the perfect place to start.

Both in the popular mind and in many academic circles, it is said that Hayek and Keynes stood opposed; the one advocating markets, the other statism. But this image confuses the one-off of ‘Keynesianism’ with Keynes’s overall economic approach, and so sets up a false debate. The tragedy is the seemingly permanent dualism this has introduced into economics and practical economic affairs. In this brief study, this history is reviewed by introducing the ideas of Rudolf Steiner into the discussion in order, as it were, to rerun history from 1923 until now with a view to putting the last hundred years back on track so that we can catch up on lost time. ‘Beyond Gold’ introduces Rudolf Steiner’s little-known contribution to economic thought. Through that lens it revisits first ‘the Hayekian View’, then Keynes’s ‘unspoken mission’. The author’s aim is to show that Hayek, Keynes and Steiner can be seen together on the one ‘true’ page of modern economic development, each in their different ways pointing to the need for economic life to be grounded on its own logic, but a logic that takes its cues from accounting.

The volume discusses the breadth of applications for an extended notion of paradigm. Paradigms in this sense are not only tools of morphological description but constitute the inherent structure of grammar. Grammatical paradigms are structural sets forming holistic, semiotic structures with an informational value of their own. We argue that as such, paradigms are a part of speaker knowledge and provide necessary structuring for grammaticalization processes. The papers discuss theoretical as well as conceptual questions and explore different domains of grammatical phenomena, ranging from grammaticalization, morphology, and cognitive semantics to modality, aiming to illustrate what the concept of grammatical paradigms can and cannot (yet) explain.

This book discusses the need for a paradigm shift from Islamic economics universe of discourse to Iqtisād, a socio-economic system that is entirely independent from other economic doctrines and systems of thought. It provides an overview of critiques of the science and dogma of mainstream, orthodox, neoclassical, or simply Economics, with its axioms of rationality, scarcity, and unlimited wants. There is also a critical analysis of Islamic economics, and its failures to set its own policy agenda and development objectives. Our contention in this book is that Iqtisād--the Qur’an’s vision of how the economy is to be arranged—provides such a paradigm with a radically different philosophical foundation from that of Economics to the point that makes grafting one onto the other Impossible. Iqtisād offers a genuine and authentic Islamic paradigm with unique etymological and philosophical foundations. It is a unique system that derives its organizing principles from the principal source of the Quran, rather than Economics. The logical coherence of its immutable system of rules compliance, institutional structures, and risk-sharing relations provides the foundations for economic dynamism, financial stability, and shared prosperity. It ensures that resources are efficiently managed, poverty is eradicated, income and wealth mal-distributions are corrected, and the internal sources of economic injustices gripping human societies are eliminated. The Impossibility Theorem proposed in this book implies that, metaphysically, ontologically, epistemologically, axiologically, and teleologically, the two polar cases of Iqtisād and Economics are so radically different to rule out any grafting of one onto the other in order to present an intermediate paradigm with a synthetic discipline called Islamic economics. Given its multidisciplinary contents, this book will be of interest to a wide audience, including economists, policymakers, philosophers, theologians, and jurists, and can guide also free-thinking readers to a clarity of understanding about the conditions of humanity and the imperative of change with a sincerity of purpose and coherence in knowledge.

This book presents an unorthodox identity economics that approaches social identity through a non-classical psychology. Garai applies the modern physics concept of wave-particle duality to economic psychology, finding a corresponding duality in object-oriented activity and historically generated social identity. These two factors interconnect to create a double-storied structure of social identity and its behavioral manifestations. The book then presents a calculation device for mediating between behavioral and identity economics. Garai then applies all these factors to two socioeconomic systems developed during the second modernization: Bolshevik-type “socialism” and post-Bolshevik “capitalism.” In this context, he examines the Eastern Bloc nomenklatura as a duality of bureaucratic and patron-client organization (“state and party”) and the establishment of both today's material capitalism and its other half: human capital economics.

This volume brings together for the first time a group of young researchers who can be seen as representative of a new generation of researchers working on German idealism. Over the past few decades, several generations of the reception of German idealist philosophers have resulted in an intensive, inspiring and fruitful debate about the concept ‘recognition’, a central topic in German idealism and the central topic of this book. Critically approaching many of the classical boundaries set up by earlier generations, the new wave of researchers in this volume explores, diagnoses, analyzes and evaluates the prospects for, and limits of, recognition from an informed yet independent perspective. The contributors to this volume overcome both the traditionally strong emphasis on practical, especially political, philosophy when dealing with ‘recognition’, and classical divisions such as the ‘divide’ between analytic and continental philosophy, or between Frankfurt School interpretations and more scholarly approaches. This unique combination of methodological interests leads to a variety of original voices which incorporate the history of reception, while also showing how German idealism continues to inspire new generations of philosophers. This book provides a first step toward a comprehensive conception of German idealism, through critical re-readings of the classical texts of German idealism, approaching their argumentative potential, their internal development, and, finally, their limits.

Mapping the resonances, dissonances, and linkages between the thought of Gramsci and Foucault to uncover new tools for socio-political and critical analysis for the twenty-first century, this book reassesses the widely-held view that their work is incompatible. With discussions of Latin American revolutionary politics, indigenous knowledges, technologies of government and the teaching of paediatrics in post-invasion Iraq, complexity theory, medical anthropology and biomedicine, and the role of Islam in the transition to modern society in the Arab world, this interdisciplinary volume presents the latest theoretical research on different facets of these two thinkers’ work, as well as analyses of the specific linkages that exist between them in concrete settings. A rigorous, comparative exploration of the work of two towering figures of the twenty-first century, Gramsci and Foucault: A Reassessment will appeal to scholars and students of social and political theory, political sociology, communication and media studies, and contemporary philosophy.

New economic thinking is in demand in the light of the recent economic crisis. This book equips the reader with a better understanding of current ways of thinking as well as an awareness of other possibilities, providing the foundations for debate in theory and methodology alongside practical implications for policy.

Revisiting Africa's Flagship Universities: National, International, and Local Dynamics offers a compelling exploration of Africa's large, public higher education institutions. The book delves into the evolving roles of these universities, examining how they navigate their responsibilities at national, international and local levels. The book uncovers the tensions between global aspirations, national relevance and local realities. In doing so, this insightful work sheds light on the unique challenges and opportunities faced by African flagship universities, revealing their potential as forces for local, national and international collaboration and development. Revisiting Africa's Flagship Universities provides rigorous evidence on the relevance of higher education at the local and national level, and the interrelation between these and the burgeoning international roles of universities. This book makes for important reading for university staff, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of higher education in Africa.