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Restoring Economic Orthodoxy: Outline of (Neo-) Scholastic Economics

Restoring Economic Orthodoxy: Outline of (Neo-) Scholastic Economics. John D. Mueller Director, Economics and Ethics Program Ethics and Public Policy Center ( www.eppc.org ) President, LBMC LLC ( www.lbmcllc.com ) Association of Christian Economists Conference

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Restoring Economic Orthodoxy: Outline of (Neo-) Scholastic Economics

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  1. Restoring Economic Orthodoxy: Outline of (Neo-) Scholastic Economics John D. Mueller Director, Economics and Ethics Program Ethics and Public Policy Center (www.eppc.org) President, LBMC LLC (www.lbmcllc.com) Association of Christian Economists Conference Baylor University, 17 April 2009

  2. What is Economics About? Well, what do people do all day?* Order indoing: 1. “Planting and building”: production 2. “Buying and selling”: exchange 3. “Marrying and giving in marriage”: distribution 4. “Eating and drinking”: use (consumption) *Luke 18: 27-28

  3. Economics as human providence • Order in planning: 1. For whom? 2. What? and 3. How (shall I provide)? • For whom: Augustine’s theory of personal gifts/crimes, Aristotle’s social, political distributive justice (distribution) • What: Augustine’s theory of utility(consumption) • How (a): Aristotle’s theory of production—of and by (i.) people and (ii.) property • How (b): Aristotle’s “justice in exchange” (equilibrium)

  4. Positive: Augustine’s “Law of the Gift” Premises: 1. All persons motivated by love of some person(s). 2. Love is “willing some good to some person” (Aristotle). 3. We express personal love/hate by our distribution of goods. Descriptive (“positive”): Outer Acts toward: Kind of loveInner ActSelfOthers Ordinate Benevolence Utility Beneficence (Gifts) Inordinate Malevolence Vice Maleficence (Crime) Prescriptive (“normative”): Two Great Commandments* Standard of benevolence (“goodwill”): negative Golden Rule (“Do not do unto others” = justice in exchange) Standard of beneficence (“doing good”): positive Golden Rule (“Do unto others” = personal gifts, distributive justice) *”Love God…with all your heart” (Lev. 19:18), “neighbor as yourself” (Deut. 6:5)

  5. Pure selfishness (assumed by Adam Smith and neoclassical economics) Gifts to others (express love) Crimes against others (express hate)

  6. How the Structure of Economics Has Changed (1): Simplified

  7. How the Structure of Economics Has Changed (2): Detail

  8. Divine Economy: The Three Theories of Providence 1. Biblically orthodox natural law: God freely created man as a rational animal though sinning person: free to choose persons as ends, other things as means (AAA’s*) 2. Stoic pantheism: Cosmos one big rational animal, God its immanent soul; man a puppet manipulated by “invisible hand” to “ends ... no part of his intention” (Adam Smith) 3. Epicurean materialism: no Creator or providence, only “matter and chance”; man a clever animal choosing means, not ends: reason “slave of the passions” (Hume) Thus the “Choice of 1776”: Created Equal—Or Not? * Aristotle + Augustine, first integrated by Aquinas

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