The Lost Forms of Economic Knowledge
On the Balance of Living Beings
Arnaud Orain(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Will be published approx. on 3. November 2026
Book
Hardback
286 pages
978-0-226-84251-6 (ISBN)
Description
Traces the early history of economic knowledge developed by thinkers between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
Tracking the pre-history of economic thought starting in the sixteenth century, The Lost Forms of Economic Knowledge investigates its origins prior to the emergence of political economy as an autonomous discipline in the late eighteenth century. French historian Arnaud Orain reconstructs the "lost forms" of economic knowledge that led to a world very different from our modern system of numerical abstraction and market regulation. As Orain shows, older approaches to the economy defined it as a relationship between humans and the environment. These earlier forms of economic thought relied on and sought to advance vernacular knowledge from figures such as naturalists, artisans, farmers, and merchants on how to harness the environment to our advantage. Nonetheless, the goal was not to maximize profit, but to satisfy our needs and live in harmony with nature. At a time in which natural resources are fast depleting, Orain argues, we could do worse than to consider alternative approaches to "economics" that lie in our past.
Tracking the pre-history of economic thought starting in the sixteenth century, The Lost Forms of Economic Knowledge investigates its origins prior to the emergence of political economy as an autonomous discipline in the late eighteenth century. French historian Arnaud Orain reconstructs the "lost forms" of economic knowledge that led to a world very different from our modern system of numerical abstraction and market regulation. As Orain shows, older approaches to the economy defined it as a relationship between humans and the environment. These earlier forms of economic thought relied on and sought to advance vernacular knowledge from figures such as naturalists, artisans, farmers, and merchants on how to harness the environment to our advantage. Nonetheless, the goal was not to maximize profit, but to satisfy our needs and live in harmony with nature. At a time in which natural resources are fast depleting, Orain argues, we could do worse than to consider alternative approaches to "economics" that lie in our past.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
13 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-84251-6 (9780226842516)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Arnaud Orain is an economist and historian and the directeur d'etudes at the Centre des Recherches Historiques at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author of The Politics of Utopia, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Alexis Pernsteiner is a French translator and language coach based in Marseille.
Content
Introduction
1: The Tinkerer and the Observer
2: Science: A Description of the World and Local Truths
3: A Dialogical and Democratic Economic Science
4: The Oeconomy of Nature and the Science of Oeconomy
5: Oeconomic Physics: The French Case until the Revolution
6: Oeconomic Physics: An Applied Science
Conclusion. The Age of Possibility in the Twenty-first Century: The Crisis of Modern Science
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index of Names
1: The Tinkerer and the Observer
2: Science: A Description of the World and Local Truths
3: A Dialogical and Democratic Economic Science
4: The Oeconomy of Nature and the Science of Oeconomy
5: Oeconomic Physics: The French Case until the Revolution
6: Oeconomic Physics: An Applied Science
Conclusion. The Age of Possibility in the Twenty-first Century: The Crisis of Modern Science
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index of Names