Quest for Prosperity

Raphael Sassower is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He is author of The Price of Public Intellectuals (2014), Digital Exposure: Postmodern Postcapitalism (2013), Solo: Postmodern Explorations (2011) and Postcapitalism: Moving Beyond Ideology in Economic Crises (2009).

• Preface / Part I: Standard Frames of Reference / 1. Abundance and Scarcity / 2. The State of Nature and the Social Contract / 3. Human Nature and the Human Condition / 4. Individual vs. Communal Property Rights / 5. Markets / 6. Economic Growth/ Part II: The Assumptions Underlying these Frames / 7. Dangerous Assumptions / 8. Useful Assumptions / / 9. Alternative Models and the Question of Scale / Part III: Current Models / 10. Contemporary Capitalisms and their Faults / 11. The Perils of Globalization / 12. Remixing and the Knockoff Economy / 13. Marketing the Sharing Economy / Part IV: Reframing Political Economy / 14. Informative Case Studies / 15. Moral Framing of Political Economy / Epilogue / Bibliography

Sassower’s study is excitingly elementary: it revitalizes the familiar basics of economics. The ideas of Adam Smith and of Karl Marx are still important and fresh, Sassower says, due to their firm root in the philosophies of their times. These he replaces with a new, critical philosophy, while retaining the basic quest of economic theory: abolishing hunger and creating abundance.