Beyond self-interest

About this book

This volume presents the methodological and theoretical foundations for economic personalism through a detailed investigation of human action from two different, yet complementary perspectives : the personalist perspective of Karol Wojtyla in The Acting Person (1969) and the free-market perspective of Ludwig von Mises in Human Action (1949). By comparing and contrasting the viewpoints of Wojtyla and Mises, the authors develop a comprehensive praxeology (i.e., a theory of human action) capable of analyzing human action from moral and economic perspectives. Beyond Self-Interest illustrates how a unified praxeology could encourage more sustained analysis of the moral dimensions of economic activity while simultaneously softening the utilitarian prejudice of contemporary economic analysis.