Geophilos: Issue 1, Autumn 2000

The launch of Geophilos is timely. Mankind once again finds itself at a crossroads. Choices of a radical kind need to be made, and that requires the fullest possible information if wisdom is to prevail. From the errors of the past century, we may conclude that wisdom has been in short supply.

Geophilos will favour a multi-disciplinary approach to addressing the problems of the new millennium. Such enquiries necessarily begin with past performance, which is why this first issue goes back to the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment originated a new mind-set. Arguably, the potential of that mind-set has now been exhausted. If this is the case, we need a new paradigm with which to re-examine existing problems and formulate new solutions. Whether the Enlightenment is an incomplete project – if so, what has thwarted the achievement of its full potential? – or a completed one that has now fulfilled its purpose, is a question that will repay exploration.

In this issue, some of our contributors address the problem of progress, which was one of the Big Ideas of the Enlightenment. This materialistic notion was based on the concept of science, but it did include a moral component. Progress was deemed to have a direction – a development that favoured the qualitative improvement in the condition of mankind. Formally, at any rate, it was underpinned by a value system. But whose values? This is one of the questions that needs to be addressed by social scientists and policy-makers, for the sake of greater effectiveness in the formulation of problem-solving strategies.

Contents

  • Editor's introduction (Download PDF)
    Beyond Modernity

  • The Cultured Mind (Download PDF)
    Science & the Enslavement of Nature
    Fred Harrison

  • Shepherds and Shearers (Download PDF)
    Economists offer a bleak future to the Third World
    George Miller

  • The Pathology of Income Maldistribution (Download PDF)
    An Index of the Wealth-Poverty Gap in Australia (1951-2000)
    Tony O’Brien

  • Civil Society, Governance and Land Reform (Download PDF)
    Peter Gibb

  • Justice & Natural Law (Download PDF)
    Kenneth Jupp

  • Public charges for the use of Inter-planetary resources (Download PDF)
    An Open Letter to Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General
    Leslie Blake

  • Discounting the Children’s Future? (Download PDF)
    Alastair McIntosh and Gareth Edwards-Jones

  • Global Economic Justice (Download PDF)
    Nicolaus Tideman

  • BOOK REVIEW: Fred Harrison on Hernando de Soto’s The Mystery of Capital (Download PDF)

  • BOOK REVIEW: Kenneth Jupp on Karen Armstrong’s The Battle for God (Download PDF)

 

WORKSHOP

NAVIGATING THE DEPRESSION OF 2010

24 January 2009

The Renegade Economist team invites you to draw upon their knowledge and insight.

This one-day London workshop decodes the political spin and provides tools to navigate the contraction. Anticipating shifts in the economy empowers your decision-making.

Please email us to receive details of the programme and speakers.