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Ethics and the National Economy • Fr. • Economy National the and Ethics Ethics the National EconomyAND BY REV. FR. hEINRICh pESCh, S. j. TRANSLATEd BY dR. RUpERT EdERER “For those who are troubled by unfettered capitalist systems that spawn stock market bubbles, bloated executive salaries, shoddy merchandise, indifferent service, economic dislocation and insecurity, and abject poverty, especially in the southern hemisphere; and that separate wealth from work, assess humans according to their instrumental value, replace the virtues of jus- tice and charity with uninhibited self-interest and acquisitiveness, enshrine freedom as the only social value, and embrace compe- AND tition as the only principle organizing economic affairs, Rupert Ederer’s translation of Heinrich Pesch’s timeless Ethics and the National Economy is must reading. “All others needn’t bother.” —Edward J. O’Boyle, Ph.D. Mayo Research Institute West Monroe, Louisiana Heinrich Pesch, S. Pesch, Heinrich HEINRICh PESCh, S. J. (1854–1926) is one of the greatest of philosopher- economists, whose “Solidarism” is based upon the classical and Christian un- derstanding of man and socio-economic life, rooted in the teaching of Aristotle and perfected by St. Thomas Aquinas. His works include Liberalism, Socialism, and the Christian Social Order (1900) and the monumental Compendium of the National Economy, which ran to nearly four thousand pages and earned him recognition as the first Catholic to write a complete, scientific economic treatise. Volume I of his Compendium saw numerous editions and was a standard text in the social science curricula at many Catholic institutions of higher learning. DR. RUpERT EdERER was educated at St. Louis University, where he was as- sociated with Pesch scholars Dr. Franz Mueller and Fr. Bernard Dempsey. He taught economics for over 40 years, retiring as Professor of Economics from SUNY College, Buffalo, N.Y. He has written or translated 15 books and Fr. Heinrich Pesch, S. J. nearly 200 articles on economic topics. He is the recognized living authority on Heinrich Pesch. J. Translated and with an Introduction by ISBN 0-9718286-5-2 Dr. Rupert Ederer Economics/philosophy/ economic thought 9780971 828650 HAT the critics are saying... Wabout Heinrich Pesch’s Ethics and the National Economy. “Ethics and National Economy, by the German priest and economist Heinrich Pesch, throws light on the kind of social- economic thought that spread widely in the nineteenth century but is now almost totally forgotten. Like other Christian economists and social traditionalists of his age, Pesch grasped the long-range implications of economic modernization, and, without turning his back on the advantages of industrialization, looked for ways to moderate its destabilizing effects. For those who live at a later and culturally more destructive point in this process, it should be possible to appreciate Pesch’s concerns.” —Paul Gottfried, Ph.D. Professor of Humanities, Elizabethtown College “Heinrich Pesch, S.J., is a major figure in Catholic economic thought. Having available this short account of ethics and its relation to economics is a very useful and important contribution. Pesch combines philosophic undestanding, economic science, and social critique. It is a rare talent. In the early part of the 20th century, he was able to judge the trends that ideological views of economics would take and provide an alternative consideration that was able to incorporate sound judgments based both on reason and revelation.” —James V. Schall, S. J. Professor of Government, Georgetown University “Pesch’s Ethics and the National Economy both delights and inspires. Here is an economist whose work builds on truths such as ‘the original cell-unit of human society is the family’ and ‘there is an undeniable interrelationship between economic progress and population increase.’ Although written 85 years ago, this small book speaks directly to the population and economic crises of the 21st century. It deserves a large and diverse readership.” —Allan Carlson, Ph.D. President, The Howard Center for Family, Religion, & Society; author most recently of The “American Way”: Family and Community in the Shaping of the American Identity “Dr. Pesch’s book is a much needed corrective to the delusions of a society hypnotized by the Myth of Economic Man.” —Samuel Francis, Ph.D. nationally syndicated columnist “The publication of this book could not be more timely.” —The Wanderer “All who have tired of the sterile mind games of modern positivistic economics will welcome the dedicated and competent efforts of Dr. Rupert Ederer in making available in English Ethics and the National Economy. The ‘freshness’ as well as solid grounding in St. Thomas of Pesch is unbelieveable as one attempts to understand Catholic Social Thought and apply it to the issues of the early twenty-first century. We can only hope that this small volume will be but the first of many developments of Pesch’s work as Catholic Social Thought adds a new robustness to economic analysis. Any person interested in ‘sustainable’ answers to today’s issues in economic policy must read this book.” —Thomas A. Bausch, Ph.D. Professor of Management, Marquette University “In this timely re-issue of Heinrich Pesch’s answer to hedonistic utilitarianism, morality and materialism are clearly distinguished.” —Frances Hutchinson Editor, The Social Crediter; contributor, Politics of Money: Towards Sustainability and Economic Democracy; author, What Everybody Really Wants to Know About Money “Once again a great debt of gratitude is owed to the IHS Press for reprinting a classic such as this. It is our hope that thinking Catholics and others of goodwill will read this book and take to heart the principles laid down for a healthy society.” —Fr. John Miller Editor, Social Justice Review “Socialism’s failures are all too familiar. Not so well known is capitalism’s role in the decline and degradation of American culture. Economist Heinrich Pesch, though, foresaw the ruin waiting at the end of the capitalist rainbow. In Ethics and the National Economy, he offers a third way – the Catholic way – that promotes not only prosperity, but also human dignity. Pesch’s groundbreaking book illuminates our current national debate about ‘corporate ethics,’ explaining why ‘free enterprise’ is anything but free, eventually corrupting everything it touches. Even better, Pesch brilliantly points us to an abundant yet humane economic system based on eternal moral principles that defend the weak without bankrupting the nation. This is a book the whole country should be reading.” —Jim Bemis columnist, California Political Review “...a splendid introduction to [Pesch’s] thought.” —James G. Hanink, Ph.D. Associate Editor, New Oxford Review; Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University “In stark contract to the neo-Liberal dismissal of both a socially binding ‘ethics’ and the very concept of a ‘national economy,’ we find a priest, philosopher, and economist asserting the real existence of both. Indeed, if we can assert anything concerning the thought of Heinrich Pesch, S.J. (1854–1926), it is that it attempts to demonstrate the necessary grounding of all economic science in the more encompassing sciences of ethics and philosophical anthropology.” —Peter Chojnowski, Ph.D. Faith and Reason “Communism has failed, and now that Capitalism has shown us in the intervening years that it is even more ruthless than the communists imagined, we need an alternative to both Marx and the Manchester School. Heinrich Pesch is that alternative, and Rupert Ederer is his prophet.” —E. Michael Jones, Ph.D. Editor, Culture Wars; author, The Slaughter of the Cities “What’s astonishing about this classic of humane economics is the profound love for man as the image of God which permeates its closely reasoned pages. It breathes a classical Christian concern for the true good of the human person. “Had voices such as Pesch’s been heeded, the bloody 20th century would have worn a very different face. If his voice is heeded now, our future will be very much brighter.” —John Zmirak, Ph.D. Senior Editor, Faith & Family Magazine; author, Wilhelm Röpke: Swiss Localist, Global Economist ETHICS AND THE NATIONAL ECONOMY “While Socialism calls for the abolition of private ownership of the means of production, the motto of Solidarism is: increase the number of owners!” —Heinrich Pesch, S.J. Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, 4, 2. “...only in society does the human being become truly master of his environment, when he co-operates with his fellow men through the division of labor, and in teamwork. From the structure of society comes the natural community: Vocation, State, the Community of Nations.... For Pesch, society’s communal nature is built of a threefold solidarity: in the solidarity which arises in a profession especially within a Guild Sytem, and within this especially between employer and employee; in the solidarity existing between the citizens of the State; and, finally, in the solidarity built between nations. “Pesch did not seek to create the Catholic economic system, for such does not exist; but it was his intention – borne of the Catholic spirit and the Catholic sense of responsibility to our age – to demonstrate the lessons to be drawn from the immutable Christian moral law and how it could be applied to the present economic state of things.” —Fr. Johannes Messner “Heinrich Pesch” (obit.) Das Neue Reich, vol. 8, 1926 To holy priests everywhere, past and present, who have understood the central importance of the Social Teaching of the Church for the defense and the growth of the Mystical Body of Christ. Ethics AND the National Economy by Fr. Heinrich Pesch, S. J. Norfolk, VA 2004 Ethics and the National Economy. Copyright © 2004 IHS Press. First published in 1918 by Herdersche Verlagshandlung of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. First translated into English by Dr. Rupert Ederer for publication in 1988 by Divine Word Publications of Manila. Preface, footnotes, typesetting, layout, and cover design copyright 2004 IHS Press.