‘Greed’ is a visceral insult. It jabs below the belt, evoking
guilty sensations of gluttony and lust. It taunts the rich and
powerful, penetrating the cover of modern ideologies and
institutions. Today, old-fashioned accusations of greed drag the
larger-than-life corporate fat cats down to human bodily
proportions, accusing them of gain without genuine growth.
This lively new book is a wide-ranging inquiry into how greed works
in our lives and in the world at large. Western philosophy has
intellectualized human passions, explaining and justifying our
expansive desires as ‘rational self-interest’. However, an
examination of the visceral power of greed tells us something about
the apathy of modern theory. It shows us how confused we have
become about the meanings of growth, creating false and morally
hazardous distinctions between biology on the one hand, and history
on the other. With greed as a guide, this book considers how the
integrity of these meanings may be restored.
This remarkable book will be of interest to anyone concerned about
the morality of economic behavior in the modern world. It will be
an important text for students in the social sciences, especially
in
anthropology, sociology, development studies, and business
studies.
Table of Content
List of Figures and Captions.
Acknowledgements.
1. Introduction.
2. What Do We mean By Greed?.
Part I: Denials and Apologies:.
3. Beastly Passions and Legitimate Desires.
4. Discipling Greed.
5. Scholars and Idiots.
Part II: How Greed Grows:.
6. Feeling and Meaning.
7. Growth and History.
Part III: Three Bio-Histories:.
8. The Gluttonous Peasant.
9. The Avaricious Pensioner.
10. The Venal Professional.
11. Corporate Greed.
References.
Tailpiece.
About the author
A. F. Robertson is Professor of Anthropology at the University
of California, Santa Barbara.
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