Tesis Doctoral Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces Estudiante: Shawn Ross Bryant Supervisor: Wolfgang Dietrich Castellón, abril 2016 Abstract Shawn Bryant Economics as Seen by the Many Peaces Beginning with the postmodern assumption of radical plurality, this dissertation investigates different interpretations of what can be summed up as economics. The purpose is to investigate and explore the concept of transrational approaches to economics. This is done by using Wolfgang Dietrich’s Theory of the Many Peaces and applying it to economics. Dietrich lays out five families of peaces: energetic, moral, modern, postmodern, and transrational, the final being a dynamic synthesis of the first four. Each peace family has its own unique ontology and epistemology, which is in turn used to explain how economics manifests in each family. The main body of this dissertation is thus an ontological overview of economics in history and culture. Six common threads are compared in each family: time, justice, relationships, currency, environment, and peace. The insights from the four constituent families of peaces are gathered to offer postulates of transrational approaches to economics. Acknowledgements It is part of my transrational understanding that it takes a whole village to write a doctoral dissertation. I may have written the words, but the ideas and all the necessary support have all come from my surroundings. It is therefore incumbent upon me to acknowledge some of the important strands of the web of life that have supported me through this process. I would like to thank my supervisor, Wolfgang Dietrich, for guiding me through this process and providing encouraging feedback when I needed it the most. I carry deep gratitude for my mother, Margaret Bryant, who has supported me in innumerable ways, big and small, in getting to this stage of my life, and most importantly, for planting the seed of education in me at a young age that encouraged me to aspire to a PhD. I wish to mention my childhood friend, Stephen Woodhouse, who gave me a job while I was writing and thus basically funded my research. The wage labour job was additionally an active laboratory for my thoughts. This process outlasted two romantic relationships, and it is with a pained heart that I extend my gratitude to the two women who accompanied me on two different legs of my journey. Without Florencia Benitez-Schaefer, I might not have ever started, and without LeeAnna Deringer, I might never have finished. It is with great melancholy that I look back and see that writing a dissertation was more consistent than my love life. It is my prayer that through the completion of this chapter of my life, I will learn to love with a more open heart. All my relations. Table of Contents Resumen en castellano...............................................................................................................1 Preámbulo..............................................................................................................................1 Objetivo de la Investigación..................................................................................................2 Pregunta Central....................................................................................................................2 Metodología.......................................................................................................................... 3 Estructura de la disertación................................................................................................... 3 Aportaciones originales.........................................................................................................7 Conclusión.............................................................................................................................8 1Introduction............................................................................................................................25 Preamble..............................................................................................................................25 Introduction to the Chapters................................................................................................26 Personal Perspective............................................................................................................30 Who Am I?..................................................................................................................... 30 Motivation...................................................................................................................... 32 Justification.....................................................................................................................34 Objective............................................................................................................................. 36 Research Question.......................................................................................................... 36 Methodology....................................................................................................................... 37 State of the Art.....................................................................................................................39 Transrational...................................................................................................................40 Postmodern..................................................................................................................... 45 Modern........................................................................................................................... 47 Moral.............................................................................................................................. 52 Energetic.........................................................................................................................55 Definition of Concepts........................................................................................................ 61 The Theory of the Many Peaces.....................................................................................61 Economics...................................................................................................................... 65 2Energetic Perspectives........................................................................................................... 71 What is an energetic approach to economics?.....................................................................73 De-bunking Barter.......................................................................................................... 77 Gift Economies...............................................................................................................85 Potlatch........................................................................................................................... 91 Cyclical Time.................................................................................................................... 106 Energetic Interpretations of Justice................................................................................... 116 Relationality: I am what others perceive...........................................................................130 Energetic Forms of Money................................................................................................143 The Living Cosmos........................................................................................................... 153 Energetic Peaces................................................................................................................158 Conclusion of the Energetic Chapter................................................................................ 161 3Moral Perspective................................................................................................................ 163 A Moral Question..............................................................................................................164 Beginning of Linear Time................................................................................................. 166 i Justice................................................................................................................................171 Debt and Usury.............................................................................................................178 Moral Relationships: Mutuality........................................................................................ 200 Gold is Money...................................................................................................................214 Spheres of Exchange.................................................................................................... 229 Stewardship....................................................................................................................... 234 Moral Peaces..................................................................................................................... 236 Conclusion of Moral Chapter............................................................................................239 4Modern Economics.............................................................................................................. 241 Defining Modernity...........................................................................................................243 Many Modernities.......................................................................................................