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Volume 3

The Need for Person-Centered Education
The Concept, Basis and Implication of Human-Centered Development
Financing Human Capital: Families & Society
Integrated Approach to Peace & Human Security in the 21st Century*
A Flat World with Deep Fractures
Human Connectivity: The Key to Progress
Scientific Knowledge and the Citizen
Unifying Subjectivity and Objectivity*
Social Power, Law and Society
On the Conditions of Collective Action in Globalisation*
Blind Spots of Interdisciplinary Collaboration - Monetising Biodiversity: Before Calculating the Value of Nature, Reflect on the Nature of Value
Rethinking Economics, the Role of Insurance: Adam Smith Upside Down—The Central Role of Insurance in the New Post-Industrial (Service) Economy*
Domesticating Finance for Pursuing Post-Crisis Growth
Towards a Conceptual System for Managing in the Anthropocene*
Globalisation Trapped
Quest for a New Paradigm in Economics - A Synthesis of Views of the New Economics Working Group*
Toward a New Theory of Sustainable Development: Drawing on Insights from Developments in Modern Legal Theory*
Education Isn’t Education: The Creativity Response or How to Improve the Learning Curve in Our Society
Disruptive Technologies, A Critical Yet Hopeful View
The Role of Presuppositions in the Social Sciences
Anticipation in Law and Social Science*
Peace, Security, Globalisation & Cultural Diplomacy
WAAS-UN: A Special Consultative Status and its Inspirational Value
Challenges are Opportunities for Korea and the World*
Human Attitudes that Prevent the Advance of Human Progress and Civilization
The World in Transit: Going Beyond Myopic Visions
The Future of Democracy Challenged in the Digital Age
What is Reason?

Danielle Sandi Pinheiro
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Brazil is facing a climate change governance puzzle in which we can identify economic and political instabilities interacting in a conflicting manner with power relations. The exercise of institutionalized power through the national government and international institutions should be enough to reach an environmental second best outcome—the institutional power... Read more
Ruslan Grinberg, Alexander Rubinstein
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The present article traces the authors’ approach to constructing a new economic theory of the modern state, considering the theory of patronized goods and a general concept of mixed economy failures as its two important components. This approach is based on the original interpretation of the term ‘irrationality’ and proposes a more general definition of ‘... Read more
Elif Çepni
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The main aim of this paper is to discuss the theories of decision-making, the problems of predictions and how the tools utilized for the process of decision-making at the macro-level could be enhanced for policy makers in our post-normal times. Decision-making is the process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the... Read more
Jo Leinen, Andreas Bummel
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract One of the key challenges of modern times is the increasing gap between accelerating technological innovation and slow political adaptation. Economic, social and technological developments have led to the emergence of an interdependent world system that revolves around the entire Earth. The functioning of this complex system and perhaps the survival of human... Read more
Hazel Henderson
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article is an exploration of humanity’s evolution from our earliest expansion out of Africa to today’s colonization of planet Earth. It traces how humanity’s success was predominantly based on our ability to bond, communicate, share and cooperate in ever larger organizational forms. Competition was also key, along with individual creativity, as our... Read more
Carlos Blanco, Alexandre Perez Casares, Ramon Rodriganez Riesco
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract What are the goals of education, and how should they be interpreted in our time? The challenges posed by the emergence of technologies like Artificial Intelligence demand a renewed reflection on the nature and scope of the educational process, in order to address the question of how to educate the human mind to cope with these problems and opportunities. The... Read more
Erich Hoedl
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Accelerating globalization leads through its rapidly increasing interconnectivities to a highly interdependent global whole with different functional subsystems, which are currently divorced from each other. The economy is separated from the society and within the economy financial, man-made, natural and human capital are divorced from each other, which leads... Read more
Donato Kiniger-Passigli
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Human tragedies continue to repeat themselves in the same hotspots of the planet. The inadequacy of all remedial policies is in front of our own eyes, but preventive measures are not put in place due to multiple interests and causes. However, a shift to prevention is required if we want to avoid further intensification of destructive phenomena such as... Read more
Frank Dixon
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are one of the most important milestones of the sustainability movement. Broad embrace of the goals by companies and governments shows growing awareness of the need to effectively address major environmental, social and economic problems. In his 2019 letter to CEOs, Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest... Read more
Fadwa El Guindi
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The article presents a critical analysis of the existing order of globalism, which imposes Western values and constructs on the human universe. This in turn leads to adverse results. It produces tensions, wars, conflicts and racial and cultural divides. Alternatively, this analysis puts together ideas from the Ancient Egyptian vision of world order and... Read more
Philippe Destatte
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract We live in an age where populism, as both a totalitarian and a Manichean political attitude, is becoming more established on both sides of the Atlantic. An age, also, in which there is a proliferation of democratic innovations attempting to address the issues of the 21st century and the crises in representation and delegation. The question of public... Read more
Michael Marien, David Harries
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This Discussion Outline was prepared for the WAAS-organized March 17, 2019, Special Meeting on Global Leadership for the 21st Century—Ideas That Can Lead to Action, which followed the VII Global Baku Forum, March 14-16. Its statements are derived from or supported by the contents of The Security & Sustainability Guide (www.securesustain.org; in... Read more
Dimitar Tchurovsky
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Society has two parallel lines of development—the Course of History and the Spiral of Social Evolution. Development is determined bilaterally by objective and subjective factors. The subjective factor determines the content of society; the objective factor determines the structure of the society. The upcoming transition of mankind is evolutionary by nature, i... Read more
Ashok Natarajan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Ideas have catalytic power to change the world. They are leaders of social evolution. Evolutionary developments in science, religion, art all have at their roots mental ideas that later realize themselves through physical acts. Ideas release the human energy of the collective. That energy is directed into a force for action and becomes effective when it is... Read more
Garry Jacobs, Donato Kiniger-Passigli, David Chikvaidze
 Get Full Text in PDF Editorial Note: This article is the initial background paper for a 15-month project entitled “Global Leadership in the 21st Century” launched by WAAS in collaboration with the United Nations in Geneva at a one-day roundtable hosted by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Baku, Azerbaijan on March 17, 2019. The paper explores fundamental questions in order to... Read more
William Byers
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This paper considers the central paradox of our time, namely, the triumphs of reason as reflected by the advances in scientific disciplines versus the seemingly inexorable increase in unreason as seen in the growth of authoritarianism and the rejection of science. The roots of this contradiction lie in a circularity in the scientific method itself, which... Read more
Inside this Issue The articles in this issue of Cadmus address some of the most pressing opportunities and challenges posed to humanity in the 21st century. Inspired by historical insights, they examine the process of social evolution and the successful and unsuccessful responses that have been the source of earlier crises and the impetus for the great advances of the 20th century. The human mind... Read more
James Surwilo
 Get Full Text in PDF The SIMPOL Solution: A New way to think about solving the world’s Biggest Problems, 2018, Amherst: Prometheus Reviewed by James Surwillo* In The Simpol Solution, John Bunzl and Nick Duffell take a multi-disciplinary approach to what systems theorist Horst Rittel forty-five years ago called a “wicked problem”. Wicked problems are insoluble, contradictable, multi-... Read more
John Bunzl
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract When considering governments’ failure to act on global problems such as climate change, the comment often heard is “all that is required is the political will”; the implication being that governments are somehow negligent, irresponsible and do not care sufficiently about such issues. The article explains that it is not that governments do not want to solve... Read more
Goran Bandov, Nikolina Herceg Kolman
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Europeanization is a highly complex phenomenon researched through various approaches, methodological frames and concepts. One of the leading discussions in literature is whether Europeanization happens as a top-down or a bottom-up phenomenon. At the same time, other approaches emerge and Europeanization is increasingly being researched as a multi-directional... Read more
Robert Van Harten
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Quantum physics with quantum entanglement as its crown, has shaken up science as we knew it. ‘Is another powerful change in the offing?,’ we can ask. The consequences of implementing the universal truth that ‘the force is (always) anterior to the instrument’ into our general scientific approach, will be phenomenal and earthshaking. As it reverses... Read more
Ivo Šlaus
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract In our interdependent and fast changing world, every individual’s future depends on the wellbeing of all humanity. Transformative out-of-the-box thinking is urgently required, especially in South-East Europe, which occupies a unique position in the world. Historically, it has been the crossroads of cultures and civilizations. Its strategic geographic location... Read more
Dimitrios Kyriakou
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract To measure the debt crisis in Europe in general, and in Greece in particular, there are different levels of analysis, rarely examined together: at the global, EU and the national levels. The global level involves the origins of the crisis in the infra-regulated practices of financial entities worldwide, whereas the EU level reflects architectural weaknesses... Read more
João Caraça
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The emergence of science-based industries after the Second World War, characterized by high technological intensity, created deep impacts on the economy, society, and on the scientific establishment itself. Science became a critical factor of competitiveness and economic growth and technology-driven research began to attract a majority of science-devoted... Read more
Winston P. Nagan, Brittany DiCaprio
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The anthropological literature has given us a key to understanding life in a very elementary community. Life revolves around human beings energized to satisfy human needs. Anthropologists also identify the structures that emerge from society which are specialized in whatever degree of efficacy to facilitate securing those needs. When we map needs onto... Read more
Carlos Blanco
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This paper addresses the problem of how to identify a small and parsimonious set of principles or “postulates” that may help us understand the great theoretical foundations of the social sciences. From a philosophical point of view, it presents ten premises that are perhaps essential for any attempt at elaborating a social theory. When one tries to elaborate... Read more
Ashok Natarajan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract As society evolves in consciousness, the character of its leadership evolves as well. The physical stage of human development is characterized by the rule of physical strength and directed by military leaders with the capacity to mobilize and exercise physical force through violence. In the vital-social stage, leadership shifts to the authority of custom and... Read more
Thomas Reuter
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The ideological war between globalism and resurgent nationalism in recent years is seen as an invitation to take sides by many intellectuals. Demonising or dismissing followers of the new right-wing nationalism is easy, but the outcome of the Brexit referendum and the last presidential election in the USA should have taught us that ignoring the genuine... Read more
Dora Damjanović
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Almost thirty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, it has become all too easy to say that the Wall “fell,” but what does that actually mean? The Wall did not vanish on its own. Rather it was the people, in a figurative sense, who unhinged it before the hammers and chisels could tear it down. It was the people who insisted on resisting the German... Read more
Janani Ramanathan, Garry Jacobs
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Great achievements of the past hold invaluable lessons for the future. Often we deify the leader and celebrate the outcome, but overlook the underlying principles they reflect. The American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s is a testimony to the combined power of an idea, the catalytic role of dedicated individuals and the power of token actions in... Read more
Frank Dixon
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract System change is the most important sustainability issue. Flawed economic and political systems compel all companies to degrade the environment and society. For nearly all of US history, these systems enabled vested interests to strongly influence government and unfairly concentrate public wealth, in large part by deceiving, dividing and disempowering... Read more
Hazel Henderson
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Recent evidence is marshalled concerning the impact on democracies of the global explosion of electronic platforms and digital companies, based initially on the US government- supported and now worldwide Internet. These companies, driving Wall Street stock prices, are still largely unregulated and unchecked by conventional anti-trust regulations, especially... Read more
The articles in this issue of Cadmus address some of the most pressing opportunities and challenges posed to humanity in the 21st century. Inspired by historical insights, they examine the process of social evolution and the successful and unsuccessful responses that have been the source of earlier crises and the impetus for the great advances of the 20th century. The human mind has a forward... Read more
Ashok Natarajan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract All values are spiritual in their essence, even those that appear to be physical. For all values seek perfection of the whole. The widest and highest perfection is based on the totality and oneness of reality. Such a perfection is comprehensive and inclusive. It is founded on truths that complete other truths rather than compete with them. Despite their vast... Read more
Robert Van Harten
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract We are entering a phase in the evolution of life and society where falsehood is not tenable anymore. It shows in the acute emergence of concealed and hidden systems and organisations of falsehood into the open. The world is readying itself to embrace harmony and unity as the real truth and basis of life on earth. The destruction of life and our world has... Read more
Garry Jacobs
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The recent explosive development of new forms of digital currency opens up unprecedented opportunities and poses significant regulatory challenges. This new form of digital currency lowers the costs and other barriers to the global movement of money, international trade, foreign investment and speculation, while simultaneously enhancing the anonymity on which... Read more
Gerald Gutenschwager
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The current economic crisis can be explained but we must remember that the crisis is the product of human behavior, both theoretical and practical, and not the product of some force of nature or mathematical law. An economic system is based upon production and consumption. A crisis arises whenever there is an imbalance between these two activities. Until the... Read more
Marta Neškovic, Nebojša Nešković
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract We consider here the necessity of redefining the concept of economic value and the system of measuring the contributions to national wealth, to be included in a new paradigm in economics, whose application should guarantee constant improvement of human well-being. Such a paradigm should be based on an adequate cultural value system. We begin with a brief... Read more
Winston P. Nagan, Samantha R. Manausa
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This paper has a specific focus on the core foundation of New Economic Theory. That is, the focus on human capital and its implications for the theory and method of the new form of political economy. The central issue that is underlined is the importance of scientific and technological innovation and its necessary interdependence on global values and value... Read more
Michael Marien
 Get Full Text in PDF Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet. A Report to the Club of Rome. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker and Anders Wijkman (CoR Co-Presidents), with 34 more CoR Members. New York: Springer Science, Jan 2018, 220 pp, $29.99. The Club of Rome is an unusual organization with an unusual history. The initial 1972 report to CoR on the... Read more
Janani Ramanathan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article uses Jane Austen’s 19th century novel Pride and Prejudice to illustrate the power of literature as a source of knowledge that transcends the insights of history, sociology, psychology, philosophy and conventional literary criticism. Pride and Prejudice shows how England avoided a French Revolution of its own. The story depicts the process of... Read more
Keith Suter
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article uses the scenario planning technique to examine the future of the current nation-state system. Scenario 1: “Steady State” argues that despite all the talk of global governance, the basic nation-state structure will remain; it may have its problems but it is the best of the options. Scenario 2: “World State” is based on there being no purely... Read more
Garry Jacobs, João Caraça, Rodolfo Fiorini, Erich Hoedl, Winston P. Nagan, Thomas Reuter, Alberto Zucconi
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Unprecedented speed, interconnectivity, complexity and uncertainty are impacting all spheres of global society today, presenting challenges that were not foreseen even a few years ago. The end of the Cold War was interpreted by many as the final victory for democracy and capitalism over authoritarian socialism. A quarter century after the sudden collapse of... Read more
Alexander Likhotal
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The world has entered the new Axial Age. Numerous transformations are taking place in the models of social, economic, and political activity, in projections of power and authority. The political landscape and its relevant “content structures” (democracy and liberalism, right and left, globalisation and nationalism etc.) are acquiring new systemic qualities.... Read more
Bitcoin, blockchain, fake news, populism, the polarization of societies, the 2008 financial crisis, the revival of Cold War tensions, renewed proliferation of nuclear weapons, the 4th Industrial Revolution, neoliberalism, the retreat from democracy, rising intercultural tensions and fundamentalism all have something in common. They are all reflections of the stress and uncertainty generated by... Read more
Michael Marien
 Get Full Text in PDF Reviewed by Michael Marien A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic. Peter Wadhams (Prof. of Ocean Physics, Cambridge University). New York: Oxford University Press, Sept 2017, 240p, $21.95pb. (First published in UK by Allen Lane, Feb 2017.) Global Green Shift: When Ceres Meets Gaia. John A. Mathews (Prof. of Management, Macquarie University). London and... Read more
Ashok Natarajan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Human civilization is a long record of the evolution of human thought Rationality enables civilizations to progress. Since the time of Socrates, human advancement has relied heavily on the power of logic and reason. Logic involves study while reason involves implementation. Converting reason into action would require not so much new creativity but a greater... Read more
Walton Stinson
 Get Full Text in PDF Editorial Note: This article is the first in a new series on individuals of the past and present who offer fresh perspectives and fundamental insights into the nature of reality, social processes and humanity’s place in the world. Sri Aurobindo was a multifaceted man, viewed in different ways by different people. To some he was a spiritual or religious figure, a poet... Read more
Erich Hoedl
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Unequal distribution of societal power is to a large extent responsible for poverty, hunger, the destruction of nature, and inhuman living conditions. From the perspective of its redistribution, we distinguish three basic means of power: The ownership of material and immaterial properties, the kind of organisation and the values according to which properties... Read more
Garry Jacobs
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The unprecedented opportunities missed at the end of the Cold War have come back to haunt and taunt us in the form of misshapen ideologies and misconceived policies. Discredited notions discarded by history once again raise their heads to be finally buried or bury us. Despite the rhetoric of the Washington Consensus, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse... Read more
David Harries
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Strategic Foresight is usually understood to be a process for exploring possible and plausible futures, or an ability to better anticipate and prepare for what those futures may hold. This perspective may reflect the majority of foresight practice, but, intellectually and in terms of potential value, it is incomplete and unnecessarily constrains the scope and... Read more
Frank Dixon
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Over the past 15 years, sustainability has become mainstream in the corporate and financial sectors. But environmental and social conditions are declining rapidly in many regions. Nearly all corporate and financial sector sustainability strategies are focused on company-level activities, such as unilaterally mitigating negative environmental and social... Read more
Gerald Gutenschwager
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract When the World Academy of Art & Science (WAAS) was founded, it sought to address the gap between science and society, or rather the apparent unwillingness or inability of scientists to address their responsibilities as important members of society. This problem is related to the growing disparity between tool making and symbol making, those ancient skills... Read more
Winston P. Nagan, Craig Hammer
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This paper examines the foundations of economic neoliberalism and underlines the implications of the foundations of this economic theory in its reliance on economic value as ownership, property, and commodity which misdirects economic inquiry from the real value of human capital as the proper foundation of a viable economic system. It focuses on the role of a... Read more
Janani Ramanathan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Employers worldwide are seeking and failing to find in new recruits many skills that are critical for success. Skills that enable employees to work as part of a team, communicate effectively, take decisions, lead, adapt to change and solve problems creatively are not often found in fresh graduates. Education does not impart these skills as efficiently as it... Read more
Elif Çepni
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Solutions to the major problems of our time require a radical shift in our perceptions, thinking and values. Post-normal times (characterized by complexity, chaos and contradictions), post-normal science (characterized by uncertainties, systems view of thinking, alternative perspectives, unknown unknowns, values) and human-centered economy are conceptions... Read more
Federico Mayor
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Taking into account potentially irreversible processes, it is our common responsibility to bear in mind “the ethics of time”. We should act in a way that will prevent us from taking a path that allows no return. We have to specifically take into account next generations: our legacy cannot condemn them to have the worst standard of living and prevent them from... Read more
Garry Jacobs
 Get Full Text in PDF This is a time of unprecedented speed, interconnectedness, complexity and uncertainty which pose serious challenges to global peace, security, and sustainable social progress. Prevailing political, economic and social theory, institutions and policies are outdated and unable to cope with the need for change. But this is also a time of unprecedented opportunity for... Read more
Donato Kiniger-Passigli
 Get Full Text in PDF As of July 2017, the World Academy of Art & Science, founded in 1960 by eminent thinkers and scientists, has something in common with more acclaimed and celebrated organizations such as CARE International, Greenpeace or Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders). The commonality is the newly acquired special “consultative status” of WAAS vis-à-vis the... Read more
This issue of Cadmus explores the nexus between three critically important institutions of contemporary society—democracy, economy and education—in an age of increasing speed, interconnectedness, complexity and uncertainty. The democratic social compact is under threat. Rising levels of unemployment, inequality and economic insecurity are undermining confidence in the wisdom and fairness of the... Read more
Michael Marien, Michael Sales
 Get Full Text in PDF Executive Summary In 2008, MIT’s Peter Senge et al. wrote that the Industrial Age bubble was ending and that, especially due to climate change, a “Necessary Revolution” was needed to create a sustainable flourishing world in the decades ahead. Since then, many business organizations have moved toward sustainability to some degree, and many other organizations have... Read more
Thomas Reuter
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Contemporary economies must undergo a transformation to sustainability if we are to avoid a descent into ecological and socio-political crises of ever escalating severity. In order to achieve such a major reform, principles consistent with sustainable ecosystems and social systems need to be identified and applied systematically. What are these principles in... Read more
Martin Ramirez, Juan Cayón-Peña
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Scientists have an important role not only in avoiding inappropriate and dangerous decisions, but also advising policymakers and other stakeholders about the best and wiser moves to make towards a human-centered society, thereby fomenting scientific knowledge and enhancing cross-cultural connections and joint research. They should also not forget... Read more
Ashok Natarajan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article argues for a positive, comprehensive conception of peace that goes beyond the mere absence of war and a more integrated conception of human security that encompasses a wider range of issues than threats of physical violence. Education is one of humanity’s most effective social institutions for redirecting the violent physical energies of... Read more
Winston P. Nagan, Megan Weeren
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article explores a particular aspect of the role of anticipation in social and legal processes. The program begins by recognizing that social interaction happens within a time-space manifold of events. This means that society functions in terms of events located on the plane of time and the situation of space. This means that social process is a dynamic... Read more
Carlos Blanco
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Any expression of rationality is based upon premises, many of which cannot be ultimately justified. The role of these presuppositions becomes particularly important in the domains of the social sciences and the humanities. A philosophical reflection on the foundations and methodologies of these disciplines can shed valuable light on how to overcome the... Read more
Carlos Alvarez Pereira
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract A new perspective is attempted on the role played by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the evolution of human societies in the last few decades. Particular attention is paid to their (lack of) relationship with the challenges of sustainable development, presenting the view contrary to mainstream perception that for now ICTs have a negative... Read more
Stefan Brunnhuber
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Despite rising expenditure and general enrolment rates on a global level, educational output is stagnating, if not declining. There is increasing empirical evidence that we need a completely different approach to enhancing the learning curve; this holds true for early childhood, primary education, secondary education and higher education. Most existing... Read more
Winston P. Nagan, Craig Hammer, Maxat Akhmetkaliyeva
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract In the light of the countless hours invested in the development of the Sustainable Development Goals—the set of targets and indicators relating to future international human and sustainable development, which replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the end of 2015 —by hundreds of the world’s top minds, in addition to more than twenty-five years of... Read more
Garry Jacobs, Mark Swilling, Winston P. Nagan, Jamie Morgan, Barry Gills
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The remarkable economic achievements of the past two centuries have cast an illusion of omniscience on the discipline of Economics, which even repeated catastrophic policy failures have still not entirely banished. The gap and disjuncture between prevailing economic wisdom and its effective application to promote human welfare and well-being are enormous and... Read more
João Caraça
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The promise of making society progress through the direct applications of science was finally fulfilled in the mid-20th century. Science progressed immensely, propelled by the effects of the two world wars. The first science-based technologies saw the daylight during the 1940s and their transformative power was such that neither the military, nor... Read more
Knowledge of the Whole The mental world we live in today is infinitely divided into categories, subjects, disciplines, topics, and their more and more specialized subdivisions. As a result American universities now offer more than 1000 specialized subdisciplines. Specialization is a power of knowledge to uncover the intricate mysteries concealed in the infinitesimal. Many of the marvellous things... Read more
Robert Hoffman
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This note takes as its frame of reference the concept of ‘deep thinking’ developed by William Byers [Byers 2015]. According to Byers, deep thinking or creative thought can emerge when a problem is framed by two (or more) conceptual systems and it is found that there are areas of incoherency between the conceptual systems. A new conceptual system... Read more
Dimitrios Kyriakou
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract There has been a total (public and private) debt bubble that has been growing since the 80s, accompanying an implicit promise of higher standards of living through large market deregulation experiments (capital markets deregulation and capital mobility being chief among them). The path chosen by conventional economics for delivering this implicit promise... Read more
Orio Giarini
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract In the first page of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith described an apparently trivial issue, the making of a pin. In his search for ways to effectively fight poverty, he formulated the basis for a new view of economy based on the Industrial Revolution. Two centuries later, the perspective he developed remains intact and is largely outdated. It does not... Read more
Joachim H. Spangenberg
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Defining, assessing and valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services is an exemplary field, illustrating the necessity as well as the obstacles to interdisciplinary collaboration between natural scientists and economists. Despite the frequent use of identical individual motivations and similarities in the terminology, the discrepancies and misunderstandings... Read more
Augusto Santos Silva
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract One must confer specific attention to “collective action” in the framework of globalisation. The article addresses this issue both at the analytical and normative levels. For the first one, it makes use of sociology. Two main problems are identified: the inequalities and imbalances that constitute globalisation are associated to globalisation; and its... Read more
Saulo Casali Bahia
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The article aims to discuss some aspects of the formal centers of social power. Thus, it seeks to answer how power becomes institutionalized in formal social organizations; what is the source of political power and how it is converted into institutions of governance; how legal power is generated by society and how it grows; what is the relationship... Read more
Murugesan Chandrasekaran
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The contribution of modern science to the progress of civilization is immeasurable. Even its tendency toward exclusive concentration on the objective world has had salutary effects of great value. Modern science has wiped away much that was merely superstitious or speculative. Its rejection of unfounded opinions and prejudices has helped the thinking mind... Read more
Herwig Schopper
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract How can citizens become more aware of science and how it proceeds in order to be able to form their own opinion on science based problems concerning our environment and thus participate in taking decisions relating to technical matters? Scientific knowledge is also part of human culture and contributes to the evolution of human values like faith. What role... Read more
Janani Ramanathan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Progress results from human interaction. Advances in knowledge, transportation, communication, technology and industry have aided in social development only to the extent that they have brought greater numbers of people closer. It is only human ingenuity that has achieved. Historically, every event that marks a step forward in social evolution coincides... Read more
Emil Constantinescu
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The Internet manages to connect different parts of the world, defies geographical distances and gives the impression that our planet is flat, but the Internet is there only for the ones who have the possibility and the ability to use it. Our contemporary flat world has deep transversal fractures which, like in many geological structures, make a direct... Read more
Garry Jacobs
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Humanity has made remarkable progress during the past two centuries in advancing peace, democracy, human rights, economic development and social equality. The evolution of human relations has progressed far from the time when physical violence, war and conquest were the predominant form of international relations. Diplomacy has evolved from political... Read more
Part 2 of this issue focuses on social power—the invisible elephant in the room that which energizes, directs, shapes and determines the results of all human activities. For decades the effort to formulate universal, positivistic, value-free principles in the social sciences led to neglect of this all-pervasive, all-important issue. Social power is the underlying source of humanity’s creative... Read more
Neantro Saavedra-Rivano
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) describes human capital as “knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic wellbeing.”* It follows from this interpretation that investment in human capital includes the sum of all costs that allow a new... Read more
Winston P. Nagan
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Our contemporary era has a critical focus on globalization. However, notwithstanding the necessary interdependence and interdetermination of the forces of globalization, these forces are deeply influenced by an economic theory, a theory known as “economic neoliberalism.” To date, this theory has not been seriously challenged. Fellows of the World Academy of... Read more
Alberto Zucconi
 Get Full Text in PDF Abstract We, the children of the Anthropocene Era, are entering the 4th industrial revolution and the impact is going to be pervasive and of greater magnitude compared to the previous industrial revolutions. The incoming changes, approaching at an accelerating speed, will be impacting everything and everybody and blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and... Read more
The 20th century is a record of momentous, multidimensional challenges, remarkable achievements and unprecedented missed opportunities. The world community missed a unique opportunity at the end of WWII to abolish war between nation-states. Instead the peace degenerated into a nuclear arms race and a Cold War. At the end of the Cold War it missed the opportunity to abolish nuclear weapons and... Read more
Volume 3
Ruslan Grinberg, Alexander Rubinstein
Garry Jacobs, Donato Kiniger-Passigli, David Chikvaidze
William Byers
Winston P. Nagan, Brittany DiCaprio
Garry Jacobs, João Caraça, Rodolfo Fiorini, Erich Hoedl, Winston P. Nagan, Thomas Reuter, Alberto Zucconi
Martin Ramirez, Juan Cayón-Peña
Winston P. Nagan, Megan Weeren
Garry Jacobs, Mark Swilling, Winston P. Nagan, Jamie Morgan, Barry Gills
João Caraça
Saulo Casali Bahia
Murugesan Chandrasekaran
Emil Constantinescu