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| Faith and Liberty by Alejandro A. Chafuen |
| Review
Faith and Liberty: The Economic Thought of the Late Scholastics, written by Alejandro A. Chaufen, is a remarkable survey of the ethical and economic thought of the Spanish Scholastics. Chaufen has succeeded in summarizing the thought of many great thinkers on a variety of topics without becoming bogged down in details or skipping important ideas. The Late Scholastics based their economic analysis on the ethics of their religion, namely Catholicism. Following the Aristotelian tradition in combination with a distinct Natural Rights theology, the Scholastics developed theories on the morality of many economic phenomenon. This includes the proper role of Private Property, Public Finance, The Theory of Money, Commerce Merchants and Tradesman, Value and Price, Distributive Justice, Wages, Profit, and Interest and Banking. The Scholastics were greatly concerned with justice. They supported policies that led to justice among men and before God. Appropriately, they found Just policies are usually those without intervention by the government. The Late Scholastics are clearly a forerunner to the Austrian School. Their support of subjective value, the reverse inequality of value in exchange, the limited role for government, and the origin and importance of money are echoed in the more detailed thinking of later Austrians. What is perhaps the most impressive is their ability to see the economic consequences of human action so accurately in their day. They were clearly ahead of their time. These insights allowed them to ground their beliefs on the policies that would be best for mankind as seen through the lens of justice and morality. This is a remarkably well written book because the author is able to condense many ideas from many different thinkers into clear, readable chapters. Chaufen certainly doesn't hit every detail, but he provides a wealth of references which would easily lead to satisfy the interest of a curious reader. This is one of the best books I have read in the last few months for three reasons: 1. It makes an excellent case for the morality of a market economy. 2. Chaufen has provided marvelous quotes from great thinkers which are devastating to the critiques of many modern "thinkers". 3. It fills in the gaps left by many economic historians and ties together an overarching understanding of economic thought. I highly recommend it. - Armen Alchian (San Jose, CA USA) |