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The Impact of the Concepts of Human Nature on the Methodology of Humanistic Economics and Religious Motivated Streams of Economics (Buddhist, Islam and Christian)

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Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics - Vol. 2

Part of the book series: Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics ((EBES,volume 3/2))

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Abstract

The shape of the economics depends on the concept of human nature, which builds main assumptions of any economical school. This set of assumptions is made about the individual (his/behavior, motives, meaning), interactions with the natural and supernatural powers (worldview) and other people (social world) and provides foundations to the economics. The chapter focuses on the influence of this concept on its methodology and methods of the economics. This impact is presented here on the example of humanistic economics, which is here understood widely, including approaches developed within particular world religions as: Buddhism, Islam and Christian. The method applied to this research is a content analysis of the most important texts created within the humanistic economics and directions of economics motivated by world religions. To reach this goal, the following steps will be conducted: firstly, the concepts of human nature will be defined and categorized; secondly, the main levels and dimensions of the concept of human nature in the humanistic tradition will be presented, and thirdly the influence of such understanding of the human being on the methodology, methods and main theories within those denominations of economics will be discussed. The analysis proved that main orientations of these schools of economic could be explained by the changed assumptions about the human nature.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Christian 33.39 % (of which Roman Catholic 16.85 %, Protestant 6.15 %, Orthodox 3.96 %, Anglican 1.26 %), Muslim 22.74 %, Hindu 13.8 %, Buddhist 6.77 %, Sikh 0.35 %, Jewish 0.22 %, Baha’i 0.11 %, other religions 10.95 %, non-religious 9.66 %, atheists 2.01 % (The World Factbook 2015).

  2. 2.

    In this context Lutz refers to ‘reflecting mirror effect’, where society reflects back to economists the very same self-interest images that economics have passed on society.

  3. 3.

    Who perfected everything which He created and began the creation of man from clay. Then He made his posterity out of the extract of a liquid disdained. Then He proportioned him and breathed into him from His [created] soul and made for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you grateful.

  4. 4.

    Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

  5. 5.

    Sangha refers to the Buddhist monastic order, which is traditionally composed of four groups: monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. The sangha, Buddha and the dharma (teaching) are part of so called Threefold Refuge, a basic creed of Buddhism. The modern sangha is governed by disciplinary rules (vinaya), which are part of a sacred canon. The monastic order is dependent on the lay community for economic support in the form of alms or large gifts of money and property, as soon as Buddhist monks (especially from Theravāda tradition in Southeast Asia) don’t engage in commerce or agriculture.

  6. 6.

    Of course the understanding of this concept changed over time, a mentioned understanding may be considered as one dominating.

  7. 7.

    For instance, the act of penitence as the sacrament doesn’t exist in the protestant church. Protestant teaching encourages much more to look for the perfection within everyday doings like work for instance.

  8. 8.

    http://www.weltethos.org (13.03.2015).

  9. 9.

    In July 2014 the first elementary school in Germany was grounded which bases on the ideas of Weltethos.

  10. 10.

    There are three main levels of the economic relationships which are as well used in the ‘business ethics’ (or ‘economic ethics’—in German: Wirtschaftsethik).

  11. 11.

    Socratic virtue—self-discovering, or the inscription on the entrance to the temple of Apollo—‘sapereaude’).

  12. 12.

    World Bank analysing this system in Pakistan refers to some technical problems, which harm the positive result of this general good idea.

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Acknowledgment

The research has been supported by the National Science Centre (UMO-2011/03/D/HS4/00849.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Development Economics and Economic Policy, Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland

    Anna Horodecka

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  1. Anna Horodecka
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Correspondence to Anna Horodecka .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin

  2. MUFG Union Bank, SAN FRANCISCO, California, USA

    Hakan Danis

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Horodecka, A. (2016). The Impact of the Concepts of Human Nature on the Methodology of Humanistic Economics and Religious Motivated Streams of Economics (Buddhist, Islam and Christian). In: Bilgin, M., Danis, H. (eds) Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics - Vol. 2. Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics, vol 3/2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27573-4_34

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