The Economics of Paradise [electronic resource] : On the Onset of Modernity in Antiquity /
Wagner-Tsukamoto, S.author.
This book searches for the origins of modern thinking in one of the best-known stories of our cultural heritage. By applying institutional and constitutional economics to biblical interpretation, it uses new approach to reconstruct the Paradise story. The author challenges the old conceptual dualism between economics and theology/philosophy.
Description based upon print version of record.
Cover; Contents; List of Figures; Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Prologue: Genesis 2-3; 1 Why and How to Study the Paradise Story in Economic Terms; 1.1 Key questions, themes and theses of the book: conflict, anarchy and capital exchange in paradise; Questioning the dualism thesis; The 'old' unitary thesis for the Old Testament: is a 'new' unitary thesis feasible?; 'Permissibility' of economic research on the Old Testament; 1.2 The constitutional and institutional economicapproach to analysing the breakdown of co-operation: a brief introduction
Heuristic models of constitutional and institutional economics: dilemma structure and homo economicusOrganizational/group-based conflict model; 'Capitalist' problems inside paradise: capital contribution/distribution and capital exchange; Contests in paradise: the critical role of economic institutions; Costs of economic governance and the generation of mutual gains; Constitutional and institutional economic research strategies for the Paradise story; 1.3 Methodological approach; Narrative analysis of the Paradise story; The Paradise story and primeval history; Finality of the text
1.4 Summary and conclusions2 Looming Capital Contests in Paradise: No Land of Cockaigne; 2.1 Work, human capital and time capital; Work and human capital; Time capital; 2.2 Morality and ethical capital: the contest for moral autonomy; A capacity for moral reasoning; Moral knowledge and the capability for human governance; 2.3 Knowledge of everything: the tree of knowledge and the possibility of science; Knowledge capital in the Paradise story; How 'modern' is knowledge creation?; 2.4 Contested liberty inside paradise; Banned capital and the expectation of obedience
Democratic ( self-)governance before the theft?The collapse of the obedience model:the Hobbesian war as a starting point for negotiating freedom; 2.5 Summary and conclusions; 3 Agents of Paradise and the Rise of Self-interest; 3.1 Homo economicus as the key heuristic method of biblical economics; 3.2 Economic agents in the Paradise story: God as homo economicus; 3.3 Economic agents in the Paradise story: Adam and Eve as homines economici; Capital contests and the rise of the homo economicus; Genesis (1: 26-30): humans not pronounced 'good'
3.4 Economic agents in the Paradise story: the serpent as cataclysmic catalystA heuristic reading of the serpent; Why did God create the serpent?; Specific functions of the serpent: re-connections to heuristic readings; Re-inventing institutional order through the serpent model; 3.5 Summary and conclusions; 4 The Breakdown of Co-operation in Paradise: The Rise of Anarchy; 4.1 The principal-agent problem: a brief introduction; Incomplete contracting: information and delegation problems; Moral hazard; Risk-bearing; Residual loss
4.2 Sources of anarchy: incomplete contracting, andinformation and delegation problems in the Paradise story
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This book searches for the origins of modern thinking in one of the best-known stories of our cultural heritage. By applying institutional and constitutional economics to biblical interpretation, it uses new approach to reconstruct the Paradise story. The author challenges the old conceptual dualism between economics and theology/philosophy.
Bible.
Economic theory.
Ethics.
Economic history.
Religion.
Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods.
Ethics.
Moral Philosophy.
Economic History.
Religious Studies, general.