Description: At a time when people are questioning the fundamental assumptions of the free market, Beyond Self-Interest upends how we relate to capitalism. It does so not by rejecting the market, but by consigning it to its original function: as a tool of human development, rather than an end in itself. Krzysztof Pelc reminds us that commercial society was seen by its earliest theorists merely as a means of achieving our highest ends. It can still do this, if only we treat it once more as the tool it was originally conceived as. Prosperity is highly desirable, but only insofar as it contributes to human flourishing.
Review Quotes: "Careful analytical skill, and eloquent prose render Beyond Self-Interest: Why the Market Rewards Those Who Reject It a rare book that retains academic acuity while speaking to the concerns of readers beyond the ivory tower." -- Kristen R. Collins, World Trade Review
"We cannot obtain happiness by pursuing it. Happiness is a byproduct of the pursuit of other goals. In this stimulating and important book, Krzysztof Pelc argues that the same is true of prosperity. Greed will create neither successful businesses nor prosperous societies. Both are byproducts of other passions." -- Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times"It takes scholarly courage and knowledge to upend Adam Smith, but this is what Krzysztof Pelc has done in this profound and brilliant study. It is not love of money, he argues, which drives the baker to bake bread, but the disinterested passion for baking, which assures the credibility of his product. There is an urgent moral lesson here for our own age of climate-induced scarcity: GDP is at best a means to the good life, it cannot be its meaning." -- Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, Warwick University, and author of Keynes: The Return of the Master"What if greed is not good? What if the pursuit of happiness means embracing values beyond narrow ambition? Pelc argues that affluent societies have reached just such a point. Turning both economics and conventional wisdom on their head, he describes a world in which those who shun self-interest may actually end up being most successful--and most fulfilled." -- David Pilling, Africa Editor of the Financial Times and author of The Growth Delusion: Wealth, Poverty, and the Well-Being of Nations"Why do so many people perceive capitalism to be failing us? This wide-ranging and provocative book argues that modern capitalists have fallen into the trap of believing their own arguments about the benefits of individual self-interest" -- Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, and author of Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be"A fascinating book, bursting with paradoxes, riddles, and counterintuitive ideas that will challenge some of your strongest beliefs about how society works." -- Daniel Susskind, author of A World Without Work