Anti-Meritocratic Economics in the Contemporary Era: The Issues with the Neoclassical Theory

No longer does society consider the full extent of the argument and consequences or benefits of a system change. All the record-breaking economic success of the last few decades simply furthers a divide between people/organizations that have money and people/organizations that need money. However, those that can view this divide assign the capitalistic system as the culprit when in fact it is the modern mutation of capitalism that is at fault. Within modern neoclassical economies, there is no form of value-based meritocracy between people and organizations.

Anti-Meritocratic Economics in the Contemporary Era: The Issues with the Neoclassical Theory

No longer does society consider the full extent of the argument and consequences or benefits of a system change. All the record-breaking economic success of the last few decades simply furthers a divide between people/organizations that have money and people/organizations that need money. However, those that can view this divide assign the capitalistic system as the culprit when in fact it is the modern mutation of capitalism that is at fault. Within modern neoclassical economies, there is no form of value-based meritocracy between people and organizations.

Capitalism and the Ecological Crisis: The Spirituality of Voluntary Sacrifice

This article seeks to consider the market fundamentalism inherent in global capitalism as the main cause and continual perpetuator of the climate crisis. Functioning in the market fundamentalism is the philosophical and theological grounds prevalent in the capitalistic system, such as desire, disconnectedness, anthropocentrism, individualism, and unilateral grace. This article analyzes some churches’ responses on climate change, especially the theological content concerning the economic system and its philosophy concerning the climate crisis. The call is made for the church to articulate a public theology that addresses the vexed relationship between the economic system and the climate crisis; there is an urgent need to embody the spirituality of voluntary sacrifice in order to challenge and provide an alternative to the underlying philosophical attitudes of the capitalist system for the planet’s sake.

Modern Confucianism and the concept of sustainable development

This article examines interrelation between the concept of Confucianism and sustainable development, as well as their theoretical mutual influence in the context of the development of China’s modern social-humanistic thought. The research employs the methods of comparative analysis, system and structural approaches. The subject of this study is mostly modern scientific articles from the publication “Confucianism and Sustainable Development of Mankind” of November 16-19, 2019 based on the VI Congress of the International Confucian Association in Beijing, as well as the research of the Chinese authors on the topic. Special attention is given to the impact of the traditional spiritual heritage upon substantiation of the modern concept. The main conclusion lies in the statement that the ideas of Confucianism are widely used for the theoretical justification of the concept of sustainable development, namely from the ethical perspective, which proves rather declarative-propagandistic nature of these works. Similar focus on the humanistic and ethical aspects of Confucianism as a reputable evidence of the modern concept of sustainable development on the level of scientific abstraction and theorization levels out the systemic problem of economic and sociopolitical structure as the key source of the all-round crisis. Namely this structure reproduces the consumer type of personality as the foundation of capitalistic system, which in many ways contradicts the traditional spiritual values. This may lead to humanization of the traditional spiritual doctrines, including Confucianism, which is oriented towards humanistic values of individualism and primacy of a human. Such influence of the liberal-humanist ideology on Confucianism distorts its basic worldview attitudes as a conservative patriarchal ideology, and turns it into the instrument of ethical manipulation.

From Precariousness to Prudence: Eco-Cosmopolitanism as the Fabric for Weaving the Post-COVID World

In a crucial juncture when the whole world has been shattered by the reign of a tiny virus invading the apparently invincible empire of human ‘civilization’, the plaguing pandemic has brought to the fore fundamentally interconnected nature of our collective existence and consequently our shared vulnerability. COVID-19 as essentially a zoonotic disease accentuates the anthropogenic hazards inflicted on the ecosystem resulting in spilling over of such pathogens from animals to humans. It also nudges us to reflect on our fundamentally interconnected existence which we have long remained oblivious about. The prevailing obliviousness seems to have emanated from willful ignorance or selfdeceptive knowledge rooted in over-arching dictates of anthropocentrism; however on the structural front, the roots can be traced back to the capitalistic system perpetuating the ‘homo economicus’ aspirations so as to mark the unflinching triumph of the ‘Capitalocene’. While pushing and pulling ourselves to adapt to the ‘new normal’, it becomes an imperative to go beyond the myopic vision of restricting ourselves to shortterm mitigation measures like border-closure or vaccination; instead time is ripe for taking a critical and broad-based stance on the structural roots of the current pandemic such that restructuration of post-COVID world helps shoving aside such calamitous disaster in days to come. It is in this regard, a radical take on ‘cosmopolitanism’ seems the need of the hour to fill the lacunae in the existing mode of perusing interconnectedness that operates only on the surface level in the name of ‘globalization’ and overlooks the fundamental rubric of ecological integrity. While shedding some light on the nexus that this pandemic shares with the evils of capitalistic enterprise and neoliberal culture of globalized consumerism, this paper, within its limited scope, will make an attempt to find an antidote to the current crisis through endorsing an ‘eco-cosmopolitan’ worldview wherein the rationalized ‘instrumentalization’ of environment and wild animals gets overridden by an eco-centric perspective on our fundamentally interconnected existence.

Capitalism in Central Norrland, Sweden, during the Iron Age

The authors challenge the opinion that a traditional hunter-gatherer culture existed during the Iron Age in the forested interior of central Norrland (En. Northern Sweden). Two new and several earlier pollen analyses together with osteological finds from domestic animals confirm that extensive forest grazing was widespread throughout the interior. The distribution of iron slag deposits suggests that iron production is a key factor to understanding the society in the area. The modes of subsistence, the low-technology ironwork, and a common conceptual world as reflected in the graves on the coast and in the interior can be viewed as elements of an early capitalistic system.

The Role of Money in Capitalistic and Islamic Economic Systems: A Comparative Study

Money has a great role to play in the economic system. It is a backbone of all commercial and financial transactions. Its role is well defined and established since ages; the fundamental role as a medium of exchange and standard of values. Furthermore, if the functional role of money is positive and productive, it leads to the economic growth and expansion of economic activities. Likewise, the injudicious role of money created several economic fluctuations and frequent financial distortions in the economic history. The article suggests that the injudicious role of money created economic disorder and caused financial crisis in the global economy. The research paper attempts to explore the role of money from Islamic and Capitalistic perspectives. In the capitalistic system, the money is being used as a tradable commodity in the banking and financial sector. The Islamic perspective is based on the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, and jurisdictions of Muslim scholars, in this context, money is only a means of exchange and measure of value. The qualitative research approach has been applied to the discussion and based on the literature review and available data, it is recommended that there is a dire need to review the role of money. The role of money as a tradable commodity caused distortions in the existing system. It is recommended that the banking business needs to be operated on profit and loss sharing rather than the trading of money as a commodity.

The disappearance of subject: the commodification of humanity

<p>The disappearance of subject or the subjectivity of the subject is a theme that interweave philosophical universes like Marx, Sartre and Althusser. The present paper has the objective of to present a perspective of the disappearance of the subject’s subjectivity in front of the capitalistic model which oppresses the human individualities. The commodification of human subjectivities is one of the main points of this paper and also brings up the debate of the oppression of the capitalistic system. We used a bibliographic review centered on the authors Marx, Althusser and Sartre, as well as Thompson and Jameson. Despite the strong economic appeal of the capitalist system, we believe that the process of commodification of human beings is still something to be discussed and debated in social universes as a way to rescue the humanity of humans exploited by an inhuman system. In this way, the disappearance of the subject's subjectivity is at the same time the disappearance of the subject itself in the world.</p>

STOCK EXCHANGES IN INDIA- NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN ELECTRONIC ERA

Stock Exchange is regarded as an essential concomitant of the capitalistic system of economy. It is indispensable for the proper functioning of corporate enterprise. It is the citadel of capital and the pivot of money market. Since 1887, various regional stock exchanges have been set up in India. However, the performance records from 1993-94 to 2003-04 show that the trading initiated by them had been gradually declining. Hence, the present paper suggests, based on their performance records, to consolidate the secondary market for securities by merging them with the leading exchanges. KEY WORDS: Stock Exchange, money market, liquidity, securities

Cannibal Basques

This article will show the importance of cannibalism in the description of the sabbath among the Basques, in the Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et démons, written by Pierre De Lancre. The Basques were often linked to magic and demons; however, this work constitutes surely the most completed document about such an association. In the Tableau there is a sort of ethnographic analysis of the Basques, who started to be compared to the savages of the New World. Witchcraft and cannibalism are the evidence of a demonic complot, aimed at fighting Christianity and, in some way, the central features of mankind. At any rate, such religious controversy is used also in a totally laical perspective: De Lancre is the representative of the King and his role consists in the affirmation of the French power throughout the region. The purpose of such stereotypes, applied also to other marginalized peoples in Renaissance Europe (such as the inhabitants of Southern Italy portrayed by the Jesuits missionaries), justifies implicitly the necessity to repress and integrate them within the civilization and the forthcoming capitalistic system.