Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Hernando de Soto and the "destruction of economic facts"

Hernando de Soto, who I regard as a valued colleague, recently published a piece on the relationship between the rise of the West and the establishment of economic facts and records, and on the other hand, the relationship between the current http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifdecline of the West and the devaluation or ignoring of economic facts (click HERE to read the article in BusinessWeek: )

I left off commenting on the article, as I was due to see Hernando a few days ago.

Last week, I put it to him that the destruction of economic facts, to which he so tellingly draws attention, is related to the rejection of the notion of truth in philosophy and the social sciences (and now even in the physical sciences!), and the resulting post-modernism and amorality of our cultural leaders.

For any improvement in the situation, for any return to economic facts and "public truth", there has to be also a cultural return to the commitment to truth in public life as a whole (philosophy, social sciences, physical sciences, media, politicians, cultural icons....)

He was intrigued and said he would explore that chain of thought, which he had not thought about till then. Sphere: Related Content

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