Economic Behaviour As If Others Too Had Interests

Contents

iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………….. vii Introduction………………………………………………………….. ix Chapter 1: The Hegemony of Human Egoism………………………1 Humans as Egoistic Beings……………………………………………... 1 The Human Instinct for Survival: the Origin of Egoism and Altruism…………………………………………………………………2 Society as a School of Both Egoism and Altruism………………………. 4 Degrees of Egoism………………………………………………………8 Solipsism……………………………………………………………… 8 Selfishness…………………………………………………………….. 11 Self-interest……………………………………………………………. 18 Chapter 2: Altruism…………………………………………………… 23 Absolute Altruism……………………………………………………….23 Acquired Altruism……………………………………………………….24 Altruistic Egoism……………………………………………………….. 26 Deferred Gratification………………………………………………… 27 Symbiotic Reciprocation………………………………………………. 29 Scrupulous Benefactors……………………………………………….. 34 Composite Beneficiaries………………………………………………. 35 Emotively Egoistic People…………………………………………….. 35 Advertisers……………………………………………………………. 36 Consanguineous Altruism……………………………………………... 38 Deontological Altruism……………………………………………….. 39 Philanthropic Altruism………………………………………………… 39 Community Formation………………………………………………….. 40 Chapter 3: Economics and Selfishness………………………………. 45 Human Needs Vs Resources…………………………………………….46 The Limitedness of Resources…………………………………………...47 Natural Scarcity………………………………………………………….48 Artificial scarcity........................................................................................ 50 The Illusive Endlessness of Human Needs……………………………... 51 Wants……………………………………………………………………53 iv Unlocking Private Property……………………………………………... 55 Chapter 4: Economic Systems as Institutionalized Selfishness……..59 Primitive Economic Systems…………………………………………….59 Subsistence Economics……………………………………………………. 59 Communitarian Economics………………………………………………...61 Feudalism………………………………………………………………. 63 Mercantilism……………………………………………………………..64 Modern Economic Systems……………………………………………...65 Liberal Capitalism………………………………………………………. 66 Socialism………………………………………………………………...78 Mixed Economies………………………………………………………... 82 Requirements for a Mixed Economy to Achieve Economic Development…………………………………………………………….. 89 Geocentric Economics…………………………………………………..91 Chapter 5: Development or Egoism?.................................................... 99 Development…………………………………………………………… 99 Economic Growth or Growth mania…………………………………. 101 The worship of Economic Growth………………………………………….. 104 Toward a Better Definition of Development…………………………….107 Chapter 6: Egoism and Multinational Corporations……………….. 111 The Power of Multinational Corporations……………………………….112 The Multinational Corporations and Advertisement…………………………. 114 Knowledge is Power, Ignorance is Impotence…………………………………..116 Unholy Alliances between African Governments and Multinational Corporations…………………………………………………………….. 118 A Case Study of the Multinational Oil Corporations in Nigeria……………… 119 Ghana, Discovery of Oil and Multinational Corporations……………………. 124 Chapter 7: Egoism and the Environment…………………………… 135 The Anthropological Error……………………………………………....136 Contemporary Politics of Environmental Degradation…………………..142 Chapter 8: Contemporary Environmental Crisis and Responses….. 147 State of the Environment: the Global Perspective……………………… 147 Global Dispositions and Responses to Environmental Issues…………... 150 v The Solutionists and their proposed solutions to environmental problems………… 151 Chapter 9: Industrialized Countries’ Development and Environment Experiences…………………………………………………………….163 Responses of Industrial Societies to the Environmental Crisis………….. 165 Chapter 10: African Development and Environmental Experiences…………………………………………………………… 169 Strong Aspirations amidst Many Dilemmas…………………………….. 169 Poverty: the Persistent but Unwelcomed Guest………………………… 170 Conceptualizing poverty: Definitions, Dimensions or Nature and Measurement…………………………………………………………….171 Who or What are Responsible for Poverty in Africa?................................. 177 Effects of Slave Trade and Colonialism on Africa…………………………… 183 Global Forces and Lack of Technology………………………………………188 Economic growth: Africa’s new god……………………………………..189 Chapter 11: Education for Altruistic Egoism…………………………195 Home Education for Altruistic Egoism………………………………….195 School Education for Altruistic Egoism…………………………………196 Civil Society Education for Altruistic Egoism…………………………... 198 Religious Education for Altruistic Egoism……………………………….200 Education for Sustainable Development in Africa……………………….201 Conclusion……………………………………………………………...209 Bibliography…………………………………………………………... 213 vi ...