Art, Spirituality and Economics: Liber Amicorum for Laszlo Zsolnai

Description

This volume celebrates the work of Laszlo Zsolnai, a leading researcher and scholar in the field of the ethical and spiritual aspects of economic life, who has made significant contributions to the connection between ethics, spirituality, aesthetics and economic theory. The book offers a selection of essays concerned with the ethical, spiritual and aesthetic context within which economics as a social studies discipline should be situated in order to avoid the sort of dehumanising consequences that theories based on utility maximisation and rational choice necessarily entail. It presents the economic activities of human beings not as some sort of preordained obedience to universal laws that operate independently of other human concerns, but, rather, as a part of the human desire for the Aristotelian good life. It looks at the various considerations –moral, spiritual and aesthetic – that take part in the formation of economic decisions in sharp contrast with theories that purport to explain economic phenomena solely on the basis of utility maximisation. Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Laszlo Zsolnai, Friend and Moral Scientist (Luk Bouckaert, Knut J. Ims, Peter Rona)....Pages 3-9 Front Matter ....Pages 11-11 The Essential, the Beautiful and the Economic: The Brotzeit by Eduard Grützner and Zsolnai’s Philosophy (Carlos Hoevel)....Pages 13-19 The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci and the Links to Food, Conviviality, Sharing, and Spirituality (Antonio Tencati)....Pages 21-24 A Dog. Just a Dog (Josep M. Lozano)....Pages 25-30 The Light of the World (Katalin Illes)....Pages 31-38 Friedensreich Hundertwasser – The Five Skins of the Ecological Man (Ove Jakobsen, Vivi M. L. Storsletten)....Pages 39-50 Antarctica – Nature’s Awesome Artwork (Eleanor O’Higgins)....Pages 51-67 Az Öreg Halász (The Old Fisherman): An Essay for Zsolnai László (Mike Thompson)....Pages 69-80 Front Matter ....Pages 81-81 From Ethics to Spirituality: Laszlo Zsolnai on Human Motivations (Zsolt Boda)....Pages 83-95 Angels from the Future. The Voice of Coming Generations (Luk Bouckaert, Rita Ghesquiere)....Pages 97-107 The Aesthetics of Energy Resilience (Paul Shrivastava)....Pages 109-124 On the Experience of Beauty in Nature, in Mathematics and Science, and in Spirituality (Peter Pruzan)....Pages 125-138 Management and Liberal Arts: A Transformational Odyssey with Rabindranath Tagore (Sanjoy Mukherjee)....Pages 139-156 Front Matter ....Pages 157-157 The Capitalistic Religion: Old Questions, New Insights (Luigino Bruni)....Pages 159-169 Nature, Economics, and Scream (Knut J. Ims)....Pages 171-193 The Idea of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Responses of Economic Theory (Stefano Zamagni)....Pages 195-214 What Can Sense Making Economies Learn from the GNH of Bhutan? (Hendrik Opdebeeck)....Pages 215-224 Innovation in the Intervention into Nature by Legal Means (Dániel Deák)....Pages 225-233