Monday, November 20, 2006

Divine Economy Theory And Democritis (c.470-c370 BC)

Of course I am also identifying the early contributions to the classical liberalism tradition but if words can be understood as a standard conveyor of meaning there are also glimmerings of divine theory from these early years.

Murray Rothbard gives the honorable distinction - of being the father of subjective value theory - to Democritis. He quotes Democritis as saying "The same thing" may be "good and true for all men, but the pleasant differs from one and another."

The second half of this statement demonstrates that people make decisions as individuals with unique needs and values, that is, subjectively.

The first half of the statement hints at a universal truth that defines the human operating system. What was a hint is now a known concept. The hinted at universal truth is that all human beings are created to know and love God whether conscious of it or not.

What the divine microeconomy theory proves is that it is the appearance of the attributes of God in every good and service that makes them desirable. All value in the human world manifests itself in the economy and the economy is a divine institution that connects the means and ends according to the 'truths' sought by the human reality. The human reality can be summed up by five words: purposeful action by spiritual beings.

Contrast this understanding with the glimmerings from 2376 years ago. In one way there is not much difference but in another way there is a vast difference. The spiritual understanding of how the world operates as elucidated by the divine economy theory moves economic science away from its infancy and towards its maturity.

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