Comments on the Foundations of Economic Personalism Series

Abstract:     
Comments addresses only the introductory part of the first monograph in this series in which the authors set forth their theoretical foundations, and it is organized along three lines: areas of agreement, areas of disagreement, and suggestions for building a new paradigm for economics based on personalism. We agree that the premises of mainstream economics need reconstruction; that in economic affairs persons are more important than things; that there is a real difference between persons and institutions; and that humans are meant to be free. We disagree on several counts, including the needs and wants of the human body and human spirit, which are met through consumption, work, and leisure. Most important among our suggestions is the need to construct a new economics around the changing roles of the economic agent in which the homo economicus and individualism of the old economy are replaced by homo socioeconomicus and personalism, which are better-suited to the new economy.

Keywords: economic personalism, theology, Austrian economics

JEL Classification: A120, A130, Z120

Accepted Paper Series