Abstract:
The Origins of Modern Economic Rationality offers a critical approach to modern economic rationality from its philosophical foundations. Modern economic rationality— supposedly impersonal, objective and universal— is the result of a progressive distancing from tradition, authority, and gift, and is the consequence of an erroneous anthropological conception. This thesis thus traces the origin of this problematic rationality through the analysis of the philosophical foundations of the major traditions of thought and their relationship to matters of a practical nature (politics, ethics and economics). One the one hand, this thesis studies the various stages of economic thought in the broader context of the history of ideas (ancient, medieval, modern and pre-modern) and, on the other, the evolution of economics in its effort to establish itself as an autonomous science. By making explicit the gnoseological and epistemological differences of the various perspectives examined, this thesis presents a comparative anthropology that recognizes the limitations of each perspective and identifies the need for a reconsideration of the human person as the ultimate and proper end of scientific thought.
Thesis title: Génesis de la racionalidad económica moderna. Una aproximación desde la filosofía de la economía
Director: Miguel Alfonso Martínez Echevarría
Defense: October 5, 2012
The Origins of Modern Economic Rationality offers a critical approach to modern economic rationality from its philosophical foundations. Modern economic rationality— supposedly impersonal, objective and universal— is the result of a progressive distancing from tradition, authority, and gift, and is the consequence of an erroneous anthropological conception. This thesis thus traces the origin of this problematic rationality through the analysis of the philosophical foundations of the major traditions of thought and their relationship to matters of a practical nature (politics, ethics and economics). One the one hand, this thesis studies the various stages of economic thought in the broader context of the history of ideas (ancient, medieval, modern and pre-modern) and, on the other, the evolution of economics in its effort to establish itself as an autonomous science. By making explicit the gnoseological and epistemological differences of the various perspectives examined, this thesis presents a comparative anthropology that recognizes the limitations of each perspective and identifies the need for a reconsideration of the human person as the ultimate and proper end of scientific thought.
Thesis title: Génesis de la racionalidad económica moderna. Una aproximación desde la filosofía de la economía
Director: Miguel Alfonso Martínez Echevarría
Defense: October 5, 2012