Ethical Economics for Today and Tomorrow
First presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #100
Louhelen Bahá'í School: Davison, Michigan, USA
October 7–10, 2010
(see list of papers from #100)
Our starting point is the quote of Bahá'u'lláh: "The source of all learning is the knowledge of God." This is also the call for the harmony of science and religion. After completing a formal training in economics and then numerous years of deep thought, combined with meditative processing of the economic literature and the Bahá'í Writings I was prepared for the discovery of the importance and significance of a dream that I had in 2004. In the dream I saw an economic model and was so thrilled by it that I shook off my slumber, enough to get up and sketch it out. That was the beginning of what is now referred to as the divine economy theory.
Since my economic training and subsequent study was in classical liberalism it is no surprise to find similarity with that long line of practitioners of Aristotelian logic. The key to understanding this school of thought is recognition of the subjective nature of human beings and then the recognition that the appropriate scientific methodology for studying human action is subjectivism.
Starting with the germ of the divine economy model that I captured from my dream, I began to unravel its mysteries. The initial model is a macroeconomic model. Its potential rested there until it was deductively released. This is the process that illuminated the core of the model and its dynamic nature and connected it to the overarching process of an ever-advancing civilization.
Deduction took us to the center of the model and we found God there! The equilibrating force operating in the economy is the power of God's Will. Humans, being created in His Image, are the reason for creation and the reason there is an economy. So in essence it is the hearts of His servants that is the tablet where the virtues of God are written and it is these virtues which constitute the true wealth of humanity. That is why it can summarily be stated that there is a spiritual solution to the economic problems. Of course transformation is an essential feature at this microeconomic level and as you will see there is no real separation between the micro and the macro level of the economy except as different ways and means to gain a better understanding and to bring about transformation.
At this point, then, nothing could be more obvious than the inseparability of ethics and economics! Part of my responsibility is to demonstrate the harmony of science and religion. Without this harmony there is a careless abandonment of appreciation for the loving guidance given to us, all through the ages, by God. It has been the Manifestations of God Who have come to us as our True Educators, and Who have taught us the ethics needed to acquire true wealth and prosperity. This, Their appearance and reappearance from age to age, is what is the impetus carrying forward an ever-advancing civilization.
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