Rethinking Economics

Dr. C. Otto Scharmer, Senior Lecturer at MIT (from the foreword)
The whole Earth, considered as an economic organism, is the social organism. Yet this is not being taken into account anywhere. It is precisely because of this error that the whole science of political economy has grown so remote from reality. People want to establish principles that are meant to apply only to an individual cell. Hence, if you study the French theory of economy, you will find it is constituted different from English or German or other economic theories. But as economists, what we really need is an understanding of the social organism "in its totality. " Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner gave this complex sequence of dense, subtle, multileveled lectures and seminars to students of economics in Dornach, Switzerland, during the summer of 1922. The course reflects a lifetime of thinking on the subject and marks the conclusion of his intense five-year period of activism in the service of social, political, and economic issues. During this time, which began as World War I was ending in 1917, he worked tirelessly to promote the cause of what he called threefolding ("Dreigliederung"), by which he meant rethinking the social order on the basis of clear separation and independence of the three fundamental spheres of activity that make up a society. He proposed three independent systems:
an autonomous rights sphere (limited to judicial and political matters) an autonomous economic sphere (cooperative or associative by nature) and an autonomous spiritual-cultural sphere
The autonomy of these three spheres, he believed, would make possible a free, healthy, productive society and open the possibility of a lasting peace.
"Rethinking Economics" is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the true nature of an economy and how it works. Steiner presents the basic elements of what it would take to create a just, socially responsible, and ecologically aware economy today.

CONTENTS:

The Lectures: The Transition from Industrial, National Economies to a World Economy The Fluid Nature of Economic Processes Economics and Egotism Labor and Value The Production and Consumption Price, Cultural Activity, and Gift Price Formation Supply and Demand Trade, Loan, and Industrial Capital Associations World Economy Money Spiritual-Cultural Needs World Economy: Living Concepts The Seminars: Points of Method and The Social Question Economics, Physical Processes, and Concepts of Work The Division of Labor and the Relationship between Consumers and Producers Value and the Nature of Work Capital and the Monetary System The Use of Money; Threefolding the Human Being and the Social Organism
This volume is a translation from German of "Aufgaben einer neuen Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Bd.1, Nationalokonomischer Kurs" (GA 340) and "Aufgaben einer neuen Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Bd.2, Nationalokonomisches Seminar" (GA 341), published by by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland."