Abstract

This book calls into question the commonly held view of the economy as being dominated by greed and selfishness. The cartoon of greed is good is nearly ubiquitous in Western countries, and is often more strongly accepted in less developed nations. Yet, this pervasive belief is inconsistent with the scrutiny of scholars ancient and modern. This book draws these findings together to focus on how morals and markets connect to each other. It integrates thought from social philosophers like Aristotle and Adam Smith with current research in behavioral biology and neuroeconomics. This book also asks why economists, business-people, journalists, and the general public continue to believe in greed as the sole driver of trade in markets. The contributors seek to remedy this misapprehension by marshalling evidence across a variety of literatures.