Aquinas and the Market

Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy by Mary L Hirschfeld, 217 pages

In this intriguing book, Mary Hirschfeld argues that economics and Thomist theology share considerable common ground, beginning with their understanding of man as fundamentally motivated by his quest for happiness.  Unfortunately, she claims, a barrier has been constructed to insulate supposedly value-neutral scientific economics from the ethical and metaphysical dimensions of human existence, but the resulting "rational" approach is itself both the product and the perpetuator of hidden (and erroneous) anthropological assumptions made all the more pernicious as the result of their invisibility.  At the same time, drawing upon her experience as a trained economist, she demonstrates that mainstream economics is not as narrow as theologians are apt to believe, and has much to teach about prudential planning and living under the limitations of finite human understanding.