Greed - Gut Feelings, Growth, And History

Greed' is a visceral insult. It jabs below the belt, evoking guilty sensations of gluttony and lust. It taunts the rich and powerful, penetrating the cover of modern ideologies and institutions. Today, old-fashioned accusations of greed drag the larger-than-life corporate fat cats down to human bodily proportions, accusing them of gain without genuine growth.

This lively new book is a wide-ranging inquiry into how greed works in our lives and in the world at large. Western philosophy has intellectualized human passions, explaining and justifying our expansive desires as 'rational self-interest'. However, an examination of the visceral power of greed tells us something about the apathy of modern theory. It shows us how confused we have become about the meanings of growth, creating false and morally hazardous distinctions between biology on the one hand, and history on the other. With greed as a guide, this book considers how the integrity of these meanings may be restored.

This remarkable book will be of interest to anyone concerned about the morality of economic behavior in the modern world. It will be an important text for students in the social sciences, especially in
anthropology, sociology, development studies, and business studies.

A. F. Robertson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

List of Figures and Captions.

Acknowledgements.

1. Introduction.

2. What Do We mean By Greed?.

Part I: Denials and Apologies:.

3. Beastly Passions and Legitimate Desires.

4. Discipling Greed.

5. Scholars and Idiots.

Part II: How Greed Grows:.

6. Feeling and Meaning.

7. Growth and History.

Part III: Three Bio-Histories:.

8. The Gluttonous Peasant.

9. The Avaricious Pensioner.

10. The Venal Professional.

11. Corporate Greed.

References.

Tailpiece.