Functional economy: the bases of economic organization

"THE FUNCTIONAL ECONOMY" EXAMINES SYSTEMATICALLY the forces and facts present in every real, working economy. The author projects the ideal situation, which intelligent adherence to the enlightened teachings of the Church and constant awareness of the lessons of history can achieve, against the background of historic and existing economic communities. This is of special importance concerning economic thinking in the United States, where theories quite false have been accepted as immutable facts, yet practice has progressed toward truth. The necessity of and the means for improvement of the economic community, the great challenge that lies in man's call for the restoration of social order, the historical development of man's moral attitude toward economics-all this has been analyzed in the light of traditional philosophy.
Socrates made the mistake of thinking that the maximum good lay in the maximum unity, an error for which Aristotle roundly chided him. St. Thomas Aquinas cited this reprehension with approval and reinforced it. Obviously, in the face of such authority, the writer of this volume would not make the mistake of overstressing unity at the expense of variety. There is unity in the chapters that follow; the same principles are brought to bear on diverse problems. The principles are the same, and the radical basis of the conclusion is therefore the same. However, there is diversity in the problems attacked, in the level of abstraction, therefore, also diversity in the immediacy of practical application and in the degree of scientific apparatus appropriate for different problems and different audiences. The under lying unity, however, justifies the presentation of these pages as one book.