scholarly journals Homo Economicus

MELINTAS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-129
Author(s):  
B. Herry Priyono

Human being is driven by many factors, but in trading activities, an individual is driven primarily by self-interest rather than other encouragement. This is the point which then develops into the core of the image of an economic being. However, the whole of human self is never driven only by self-interest. Through the history of the idea of homo economicus, what was originally a particular point of view about humans turned into a claim about the whole of human nature. The actions and behaviours of homo economicus were still driven by self-interest, but what was meant by self-interest was no longer in its classical sense. Its meaning has been much more extensive. This article shows the ambiguity of the idea of homo economicus: what was originally a certain point of view about human being, was applied to human nature and then became an agenda of how human beings and society should be. Humans must be homo economicus, but the latter is definitely not the whole picture of human nature. The image of an economic being is not the real description of the nature of human self, for it has its own territory. It is not the economic beings that gave birth to economics, but the economics that created economic beings.

2019 ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
Dariusz Kwiatkowski

The article presents the sources, origin and theology of the Litany to the Holy Name of Jesus. The rst part shows the mystery of names. It is the symbolism of man and the process of mutual communication that is the core. Names are the living souls of every being. Thanks to names, human beings are not anonymous. In ancient times, names would never be overlooked as insigni cant conventional terms as they had a meaningful part in the role that a given being took on in the uni- verse. The name has a meaning and is treated as a kind of a spiritual substance, as something real, something that truly exists. The sources of Jesus’ titles present in the Litany to the Name of Jesus are the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers of the Church and popular piety. The Litany to the Holy Name of Jesus shows the richness of the content in the Name of Jesus, which contains the truth about His deity and His in nite love for the whole of creation and especially for every human being. The Litany is a summary of the entire history of salvation, in which the name of Jesus became “a name above all names” (see Flp 2: 8-11).


Author(s):  
Shao Kai Tseng

Summary This article offers an exposition of Karl Barth’s actualistic reorientation of the Augustinian notions of original sin and the bondage of the will in § 60 and § 65 of Church Dogmatics IV/1–2. Barth redefines human nature as a total determination of the human being (Sein/Dasein) “from above” by the covenantal history of reconciliation. Human nature as such remains totally intact in the historical state of sin. The human being, however, is also determined “from below” by the Adamic world-history of total corruption. With this dialectical construal of sin and human nature, Barth redefines original sin as the radically sinful activities and decisions that determine the confinement of human beings to the historical condition of fallenness. Barth also challenges the famous Augustinian account of the bondage of the will to which original sin gives rise, and uses the present active indicative to express his actualistic reorientation of the Augustinian notion of the bondage: “non potest non peccare”.


Author(s):  
Laurie M. Johnson

This concluding chapter argues that Thucydides' approach to politics is more preferable than Hobbes's. Hobbes, despite his pessimistic assumptions about human nature, is not realistic. Is it realistic to assume that all people act predictably, that they are always guided strictly by self-interest, that all other motivations are a sham—or, if genuine, so rare that to take them into account is useless? According to Thucydides, human beings are multifaceted, so that it becomes necessary, for example, to examine individual leaders and to listen seriously to their reasons for acting a certain way. Thucydides also shows that there is a natural sociability in people that goes beyond vying for power and glory and, indeed, coexists with these urges, so that it is unrealistic not to take into account a certain amount of genuine altruism. Does Hobbes's account of leadership deal with the impact of great individuals on history? Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War contains individuals with varying motivations, some altruistic, some self-interested, some acting on rage and revenge. In other words, it reflects reality. As such, Thucydides, as often as Hobbes, has been dubbed the father of international realism. The chapter then discusses how realism and neorealism, despite their differences, share the same philosophical roots. It also suggests that Thucydides has been misunderstood and that he actually provides an interesting alternative approach to realism in the study of international politics.


1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-253
Author(s):  
René van Woudenberg

Throughout the history of Western philosophy there has been a remarkable consensus that the unique and distinctive feature of human nature lies in the human capacity to think — that is, to think rationally. Being rational is conceived of as being an essential property of human beings. The Amsterdam philosopher Otto Dirk Duintjer2 has made an impressive attempt to analyze this dominant intellectual tradition for the purpose of furnishing hints for an alternative conception of what goes into the essence of being human. This alternative is presented not as another, more promising route within, but as a way out of our Western intellectual cul-de-sac, as Duintjer sees it. In this essay I first want to give a brief exposition of Duintjer’s analysis of our philosophical tradition because, I think, it is worth our serious consideration. Secondly, I will review his alternative for the traditional conception of what it means to be a human being. And thirdly I will discuss the viability of his alternative by comparing it with Dooyeweerd’s transcendental philosophy.


Author(s):  
Liubov Vetoshkina ◽  
Yrjö Engeström ◽  
Annalisa Sannino

By skillfully shaping and producing objects human beings externalize and make real their future-oriented imaginaries and visions. Material objects created by skilled performance make human lifeworlds durable. From the point of view of history making, wooden boat building is a particularly rich domain of skilled performance. This chapter is based on two research sites, one in Finland and the other in Russia. The analysis is divided into four layers or threads of history making, namely personal history, the history of the wooden boat community, the political history of the nations and their relations, and the history of the boats themselves as objects of boat-building activity. The chapter ends by discussing our findings and their implications for the understanding of skilled performance and history making in work activities and organizations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Jafar Aghazadeh ◽  
Hasan Mohammadi

<p>In the thoughts and beliefs of Iranians, kingdom has had a history of the creation of human beings on the earth. Accordingly, Iranians believe that the first creature and human being on the earth was the first king of Iran. Iranians connects the history of their mythical royal dynasties to the creation of humanity. For Iranians, the mythical kings of Iran are the creators of the royal institution and the functions and duties of the royal institution have been established, developed and transferred to next generations by the measures of these kings. The objective of the present study is to investigate the establishment of the royal institution and the development of royal institution in ancient Iran by a descriptive-analytical method. The findings indicate that Iranians had specific sacredness for their kings and called the first creature of Ahura Mazda as the King. In addition, they believed that kings should perform particular tasks whose formation was attributed to the mythical kings of Iran. Further, they believed that only those persons had the right of being a king who were from the race of kings and were approved by Ahura Mazda. to examine Lessing’s elucidation of authentic knowledge in <em>Shikasta</em>. The methodology appropriated in the paper entails depiction of visible world as an illusion of the Real pointed in Plato’s allegory of Cave and Nagarjuna’s Mundane Truth. We clarify emotion as the main motivator of such illusionary status stressed in both Plato and Nagarjuna’s thoughts. We argue that while the importance of reason and eradicating emotion cannot be ignored, what adjoins people to Truth is mindfulness and intuitive knowledge which is close to Nagarjuna’s non-dual patterns. By examining ordinary life as the illusion of Real, and emotion as the main obstacle to achieve the Truth emphasized in both Nagarjuna and Plato’s trends, we depart from other critics who undermine the eminence of essentialist trace in Lessing’s works and examine her approach towards Truth merely under postmodern lens. This departure is significant since we clarify while essentialism has been abandoned to a large extent and supporters of Plato have become scarce, amalgamation of his thoughts with spiritual trends opens a fresh way to earn authenticity in Lessing’s novel. </p><p> </p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 125-144
Author(s):  
Jesús Víctor Alfredo Contreras Ugarte

Summary: Reflecting on the role humans take into nowadays society, should be of interest in all our social reflections, even for those that refer to the field of law. Any human indifferent and unconscious of the social role that he ought to play within society, as a member of it, is an irresponsible human detached from everything that surrounds him, regarding matters and other humans. Trying to isolate in an irresponsible, passive and comfortable attitude, means, after all, denying oneself, denying our nature, as the social being every human is. This is the reflection that this academic work entitles, the one made from the point of view of the Italian philosopher Rodolfo Mondolfo. From a descriptive development, starting from this renowned author, I will develop ideas that will warn the importance that human protagonism have, in this human product so call society. From a descriptive development, from this well-known author, I will be prescribing ideas that will warn the importance of the protagonism that all human beings have, in that human product that we call society. I have used the descriptive method to approach the positions of the Italian humanist philosopher and, for my assessments, I have used the prescriptive method from an eminently critical and deductive procedural position. My goal is to demonstrate, from the humanist postulates of Rodolfo Mondolfo, the hypothesis about the leading, decision-making and determining role that the human being has within society. I understand, to have reached the demonstration of the aforementioned hypothesis, because, after the analyzed, there is no doubt, that the human being is not one more existence in the development of societies; its role is decisive in determining the human present and the future that will house the next societies and generations of our historical future.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Ladenthin

This introduction to pedagogy establishes the principles of pedagogical action. Based on the responsibility of every human being for him- or herself, fellow human beings and the environment, the core task of pedagogy is to convincingly substantiate justified claims. Instruction, education, care, discipline and just community are derived and developed as tasks of educational activity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-415
Author(s):  
Miriam Leidinger

Abstract The term vulnerability is en vogue, both in theology and in mission studies. This contribution systematically analyses the concept and phenomenon of vulnerability and discusses its different aspects; namely materiality and embodiment, pain and suffering, and resilience and resistance. From a Christian theological point of view, these aspects of vulnerability resonate with key theological questions that lead to a closer look at the Christologies of Jürgen Moltmann, Jon Sobrino, and Graham Ward. The guiding questions are: How can we speak about the vulnerable human being in his or her relationship to Jesus Christ, the Son of God made flesh? And how is it possible vice versa to speak about the incarnated God in light of the vulnerability of all human beings? Finally, the argument culminates in a plea for a vulnerable theology in a wounded world.


2021 ◽  
pp. 81-103
Author(s):  
James A. Harris

‘Religion' discusses Hume’s various treatments of religion, particularly in the essay ‘Of Miracles’, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, and ‘The Natural History of Religion’. Hume's earlier writings show some interesting implications for religion, including A Treatise of Human Nature and the essay ‘Of National Characters’. Looking at ‘Of Miracles’ shows that Hume’s theme was not the possibility of miracles as such, but rather the rational grounds of belief in reports of miracles. Considering the Dialogues emphasizes the distinction between scepticism and atheism. Meanwhile, ‘Natural History’ emphasizes Hume’s interest in the dangerous moral consequences of monotheism. What is the future for religion? Perhaps Hume was unlikely to have supposed that his writings would do anything to reduce religion’s hold on the vast majority of human beings.


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