Human dependence on technology has increased exponentially over the past several centuries, and so too has the notion that we can fix environmental problems with scientific applications. The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of Knowledge proposes an alternative to this hubristic, shortsighted, and dangerous worldview. The contributors argue that uncritical faith in scientific knowledge has created many of the problems now threatening the planet and that our wholesale reliance on scientific progress is both untenable and myopic. Bill Vitek, Wes Jackson, and a diverse group of thinkers, including Wendell Berry, Anna Peterson, and Robert Root-Bernstein, offer profound arguments for the advantages of an ignorance-based worldview. Their essays explore this philosophy from numerous perspectives, including its origins, its essence, and how its implementation can preserve vital natural resources for posterity. All conclude that we must simply accept the proposition that our ignorance far exceeds our knowledge and always will. Rejecting the belief that science and technology are benignly at the service of society, the authors argue that recognizing ignorance might be the only path to reliable knowledge. They also uncover an interesting paradox: knowledge and insight accumulate fastest in the minds of those who hold an ignorance-based worldview, for by examining the alternatives to a technology-based culture, they expand their imaginations. Demonstrating that knowledge-based worldviews are more dangerous than useful, The Virtues of Ignorance looks closely at the relationship between the land and the future generations who will depend on it. The authors argue that we can never improve upon nature but that we can, by putting this new perspective to work in our professional and personal lives, live sustainably on Earth.

Luhmann's classic text on how organizations work; how they should be designed, steered, and controlled; and how they structure society.

Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

A collection of papers dicussing unknowledge and choice in economics. The topics focus especially on G.L.S.Shackle's theories and his place in subjectivist thought but also include time, choice and dynamics in economics and interest rates and investment decisions.

Consists of original and rev. versions of papers presented at a conference at Airlie House in Virginia, Mar. 1983. Includes bibliographies and index.

This work, based upon the two Manchester Special Lectures given by the author in 1989-90, and focusing on the central economic issues of co-ordination and change, treats these as problems of equilibrium in the case of co-ordination and as problems of evolution in the case of change.

This book is the first of its kind to use Austrian subjectivism to analyze issues in economic development. Unlike scholars in mainstream neoclassical economics who explain economic development by quantitative growth models, this book attempts to understand economic progress in human agency perspective. In this approach, human agency is placed at the centre of economic analysis. This book begins with a review of the theories of economic development in the history of Austrian economics, with the intention of extending the contributions of major Austrian economists to development economics. After pointing out the weaknesses in the orthodox neoclassical approach to economic growth, the book then puts forward a subjectivist methodology which integrates the contributions of Max Weber, Alfred Schutz and Austrian Economists to interpret economic phenomena and policies. This chapter also serves as a methodological foundation for arguments elaborated in subsequent chapters. The rest of the book discusses important issues in economic development, namely, entrepreneurial process, national capabilities, innovation, trade, government, transition and catching up strategies for firms in latecomer economies. The book ends with concluding remarks and a proposal for a new research agenda in economic development. This book is well written, free from mathematics and is highly readable. It adds new insights not only in economics, but also in management, politics and social sciences. It will be useful to scholars, policy makers and students in economic development, entrepreneurship, theory of the firm, management of innovation, government policy, economic sociology, Austrian and evolutionary economics.

Departing from the traditional approach of surveying current and future trends and developments, this unique Handbook brings phenomena, theories, and concepts from multiple disciplines together to advance entrepreneurship. With original contributions from authors who are experts in their fields, the collection offers state-of-the-art insights into generating new areas for research, new theories and concepts, and new questions for policy debates – all aimed at advancing entrepreneurship. Divided into four sections and covering perspectives such as neuroscience, theology, organisational behavior and education, The Palgrave Handbook of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Entrepreneurship is a rich source of information for researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, leaders and managers.

In recent years there has been a spectacular revival of interest in the economics of the Austrian school. New Perspectives on Austrian Economics includes *A keynote chapter by Israel Kirzner on the question of subjectivism within Austrian Economics *Chapters on Menger, Hayek and Schumpeter *the Socialist Calculation debate *Austrian perspectives on key theoretical issues including Uncertainty and Business Cycle Theory *the policy implications of Austrian economics