NOTES FACING THE GLOBAL CRISIS: 1 THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN CHALLENGING ECONOMIC Chuang Tzu, The Book of Chuang Tzu, IT. Palmer, Breuilly Ming d Ramsay (London: Penguin Books, 2006), p. xx . " an POWERS' 2 Lud~ig Wiltgenslein. Remarks 0 11 Frazer's Golden Bough. Philosophical Si/ja Graupe OccaslOns. Ed. J. Klagge and A. Nordmann (Indianapolis, IN and Cambndge, MA: HackeLt, 1993), p. 125 . INTRODUCTION 3 WiLtgenstein, Philosophical Occasions, p. 129. 'Wittgenstein, Philosophical Occasions, p. 133. When allending the opening ceremony of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy at Seoul National University, I was struck by the welcoming l Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Tr. R. J. Hollingdale words of Peter Kemp, President of the Congress: (London: Penguin Books, 2003), pp. 329-330. To rethink philosophy today is to apply our philosophical capacities 6 Peter Kingsley, Reality (Inverness, CA: The Golden Sufi Center 2003) pp.190-1. ' , to the current situation of humanity. One often forgets that the economical, technological and military powers do nOl possess the 'N'le tzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, pp. 14-5. monopoly of power in the world. Philosophical argumentation and reflection constitute a power through the word that is capable of 8 Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being: Reflection and Mystery. Tr. G S. challenging the other powers, exposing the lies and the i11usions Fraser. (South Bend, IN: St. Augusttne's Press, 2001), pp. 191-6. and proposing a belter world as the habitation of humanity. In this sense true philosophy is cosmopolitan, it is a fight to create a world 9 ~arti~ Heide~ger,. Pannellides. Tr. Schuwer and Rojcewicz (Bloomington IN. Indiana UOIversHy Press, 1998), pp. 99-104. ' citizenship and make a new world order. I 10 Marcel, The Mystery of Being , p. 192. When Kemp spoke these words, the world stood at the brink of an economic \I Marcel, The Mystery of Being, p. 193. crisis almost unprecedented in scope and scale. Financial turmoil was about 12 to emerge from the United States and make itself felt in almost every corner Marcel, The Mystery of Being, p. 194. of our planet, causing stock markets to crash and banks to go bankrupt so as 13 to leave many without a job, a horne, savings or a pension. But even before Marcel, Tlte Mystery of Being, p. 195. the crisis hit, many people surely anticipated the potential damage that such " KIngs' I ey, Reality, p. 187 economic powers, of which Peter Kemp spoke, could inflict upon the world. I suggest that the root cause of such anxiety lies in an immense lack of IS K' I lOgs ey, Reality, p. 161. understanding; we do not yet truly know the economic powers we currently 16 KlOgs' I ey, Reality, p. 197. face. This is especially so because the scientific. economic knowledge. into which many people formerly put their tru st, comes to increasingly lose its 17 K' Ingsley, Reality, p. 198. explanatory power. A New York Times article recently stated that the recent crisis exposed severe flaws in how present day economics sees an ever more " KlOgs' Iey, Reality, p. 199. complicated world. It turns out that. as long as we remain bound to the 19 H el' d egger, Parmenides, pp. 64-83. lauer's simplistic methodological framework. we are going to remain 20 unable to deal with the inherent dynamics of today's interdependent global Robert Nadeau, and Menas Kafatos, Th e NOli-Local Universe: the New markets. Gi ven this, Kemp was surely right in demanding philosophy to PhYSI CS and Mailers of the Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 ). apply its capacities to the current economic situation. We need to nurture the latter's reflective power so that it can challenge economic powers by 21 Bernard D'Espagnat, III Search of Reality (Berlin: Springer, 1983). first and foremost revealing their true nature . Though it seems clear to me that philosophy cannot be said to be in the possession of any ready-made answers, I am confident that the world' s philosophers can work together so as to advise humanity on finding the answers and solutions needed for 88 Philosophy. Culture, and Traditions In the Face of Global Crisis 89 dealing with today's economic problems. Above all, philosophy is to use, speak ing of an objectivist metaphysics, here, insofar as this mainstream by mean s of intense intercultural and interreligious dialogue, its Whole mostly views the economy as an aggregation of abso lute facts ollly, existing transformative potential so as to oppose the present day's most common independently from all mental states (feelings, wishes, desires) etc. of (i.e., mainly Western capitalist) modes of economic thought. For this, it has humans .3 In its attempts to develop into a 'real science,' from the to combine the power of its various schools and traditions so that they nineteenth century onward, economics mainly sought to conceptualize the together can render possible new insights into the mostly forgotten world from the perspective of a purely objective, detached observer and presuppositions and background assumptions of economics, as well as La attempted to fully emulate the methods of the natural sciences or, more break through the limitations those presuppositions and assumptions set to precisely speaking, those of mechanics.' Above all, it applied mathematical our human creative understanding . and statistical methods, which had shown such magnificent results in the The challenge here does not simply lie in abandoning mainstream natural sciences, to the social world in general and to the economy economics as if we could easily do away with it. Rather, we are to critical1y specifically. Because economists generally assume "that the phenomena of engage it so as to overcome its most pervasive modes of thought from economic life are governed according to strict laws, like those of nature,"S without and especially from deeply within. Philosophy is to explore the they are convinced that "we have to research the laws of social cooperat ion thinking of economics so as to better understand the pervasive. albeit often as physicists research the laws of mechanics ... 6 As a result, economists implicit, influence it has in shaping how we have come to see the world and generally perceive the economy as mere outer reality, which works ourselves, especially in the West. More specifically, philosophy is to assist according to quasi-mechanical laws independent from any subjective humanity in (a) encountering the implicit, yet very powerful modes of percepti ons. On ce we buy into this conception, we come to view the limitation that economics creates with respect to our own self­ economy as nothing but an aggregation of things and events firmly standing understanding, and in (b) developing the mental skills needed to break over and against us, consisting solely of entities such as markets, through these modes of limitation. It is to unleash a power of innovation , institutions, and goods, which are interrelated according to fixed principles not for controlling the world in yet better or more efficient ways, but for and totally unconnected to our inner SUbjectivity. We think of the economy exploring new paths of self-transformation. During the World Congress of as the physical or material world only and, consequently, of economic Philosophy in Seoul, much progress was made in taking up these powers as inexorable and ineluctable forces which no human ideals or challenges. Being an economist, I was astonished at how many aspirations can possibly alter. These powers seem to be thrust upon us by presentations and round table discussions and conversations proved an anonymous source - the invi si ble hand of the market place, to use Adam enormously helpful in clarifying my understanding of my own subject, even Smith's famous expression - while our own human creativity is viewed as when they did not explicitly deal with economic issues. This paper is an being essentially reactive. Borrowing a deistic metaphor from classical attempt to indirectly pay tribute to the events of the World Congress by economics, it seems as if economic powers could essentially be attributed to reflecting upon the dynamic and multi-faceted nature of economic powers a "Great Mechanic ," who guides and controls economic events from the in their light. More specifically, this paper seeks to gradually deepen the outside without being influenced by them in turn.7 Thus is the economy understanding of these powers by exploring their objectives and their likened to a machine as in the following metaphor used by Adam Smith: subjective nature in order to bener elucidate the experiential, creative and dynamic nature of these powers. In the conclusion, 1 point to some cognitive The wheels of the watch are all admirably adjusted to the end for barriers of modern individualism currently preventing us from fully which it was made, the pointing of the hour. All their various motions appropriating this latter dynamic nature. Thus, I lurn attention to one further conspire in the nicest manner to produce this effect. If they were philosophical task Peter Kemp mentioned: the task of critically exposing endowed with a desire and intention to produce it. they could not do it those hidden lies and illusions about our human nature that stifle the kind of better. Yet we never ascribe any such desire or intention to them , but creativity necessary to propose a better model of the world - a vision of the to the watch-maker, and we know that they are put into motion by a world as a genuine human habitation. spring, which intends the effect is produces as little as they do' MAINSTREAM ECONOMICS Such a conception of economic powers denies the existence of any distinctively human powers within the economy.