Beyond Profit and Self-Interest

Economics with a Broader Scope

Robert Scott Gassler, formerly Professor of Economics, Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

This book attempts to reformulate existing orthodox economic theory in order to improve its conversation with disciplines that have traditionally been seen as the domain of political scientists, sociologists, psychologists and even biologists, and to fit economics into the broader scheme of social science theory.

‘Here is the book Léon Walras should have written, or would have written if he had also been Kenneth Boulding’s student. It is ingenious in content and wholesome in attitude. It combines neoclassical economics, departures arguably within neoclassicism, and varieties of heterodox economics, within the ambit of systems theory. It is only one of many possible combinations but it is rich and open-ended. Its attitude is especially striking. Gassler departs from the trap of unbending defense of the neoclassical hard core versus its equally unbending critique. He departs, too, from seeing orthodoxy and heterodoxy as either alternatives or supplements; he constructs a model that permits all to survive as tools in the art of economics. It enables economists to escape from many of their current impasses. The book needs to be widely read.’
——沃伦·塞缪尔,密歇根州的联合国iversity, US