Lonergan on Economic Cycles and the Communal Promise
Directory
(please note the wiki filter would not accept the URL's, which I had to remove, but they would be searchable in youtube- MB)
Compiled by Matthew McNatt:
"Lonergan's economics offers an explanation for and reasoned way to modulate Kondratiev wave cycles, so this Fordham Lecture Series is also of potential interest to anyone who studies historical cycles.
- 1. “This Is Worth a Life” ‒
McShane begins by quoting Stephen McKenna, who, when he discovered Plotinus and pondered the possibility of translating the Greek into English, said “This is worth a life.” He then introduces the challenge of identifying the basic variables of economics as an empirical science, providing examples from the emergence of the elementary sciences.
- 2. Reading the Basic Diagram ‒
McShane lectures on the basic variables and basic diagram of Lonergan’s Economics at Fordham University, January 2000.
- 3. Identifying Exchange Functions ‒
McShane lectures on identifying exchange functions in a static economy at Fordham University, January 2000
- 4. Distinguishing Levels and Flows in a Static Economy ‒
McShane lectures on distinguishing levels and flows in a static economy at Fordham University, January 2000.
- 5. What is Economic Control? ‒
McShane lectures on economic control at Fordham University, January 2000.
- 6. The Relationship Between CWL 15 and CWL 21 ‒
McShane discusses the relationship between Lonergan’s writing efforts in the early 1940s and his later teaching and writing efforts in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
- 7. The Redistributive Function ‒
McShane lectures on the distributive function and exchanges that are not immediately productive, e.g. mergers, buying/selling houses, buying and selling
- 8. Seeing Manhattan, Systems, and Systematics ‒
McShane lectures on the challenge of reading the “baseball diagram” into Manhattan and discusses the possibility of a systematics economics.
- 9. Investments, Savings, and Credit ‒
McShane lectures on the fundamental meaning of credit and examines the claim that savings are equal to investments.
- 10. Microeconomic Autonomy ‒
McShane proposes that in good time there will be local economic advisors and democratic control of local economies. He contrasts this with “unenlightened” government creation of jobs.
- 11. Money, Credit, and Communal Promise ‒
McShane speaks about the non orthodox meanings of money as a dummy and credit as a communal promise.
- 12. Education in the Axial Period ‒
McShane speaks about rewriting grade school textbooks, efficient metaphysics, linguistics, musicology, and dance in the transition to a “third stage of meaning.”
- 13. Reading For a New Political Economy (CWL 21) ‒
McShane elaborates on the challenge of reading classic texts and then contrasts the struggle to understand For a New Political Economy (CWL 21) with simple-minded nominalism. He mentions his own eager efforts at a young age to reach up to Chopin’s meaning and notes that a similar effort with another classic, be it a concerto by Mozart, a painting by Cezanne, or the economics analysis of Lonergan, invites reverence and humility.