Moral Power and the Capitalist Dilemma

We confront the capitalist dilemma. Our fabulously productive, wealth-creating global economic system is also fragmenting our communities and destroying the earth's ecosystem. The words "green" and "sustainability" are heard everywhere as humanity sounds the alarm of a planet in peril. The author argues we will transform our economy only when a global public conversation emerges with the power to shake up and move our politics, one that insists that ethics and values be infused into the way we do economics. Academically, this is the realm of discourse ethics - conversations in economics and ethics. In this volume, the author examines the discourse ethics of Jrgen Habermas in the context of two historical, real-world public conversations beginning in the late 18th century and continuing into the present day: the developing theory of "classical/neoclassical economics," challenged by a particular historical praxis addressing the social impact of capitalism, referred to as "social Christianity." The goal is to ferret out the elements of our global public conversation that will generate the moral power to resolve the capitalist dilemma.