Social Science – Scriptorium

[Thought] Price and Labor

In our everyday lives, we want many different goods, which we need as necessities, for satisfaction, or even just for showing off.

We may want many things, but we have only limited resources – money – to exchange with goods. It is the heart of modern Economics – scarcity and decision making-.

Utopia is a word derived from the Greek prefix “οὐ (ou-), not,” and “τόπος (topos) – place,” with the suffix “-iā (-ία)” that is a typical ending of the place names (toponym). Utopia literally means “nowhere.” Also, Utopia can be interpreted with the Greek prefix “eu-, good”; a good place.

Utopia is not an actual Greek word. Thomas More introduced the word in his book “Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia” in 1516. As the name suggests, Utopia (No Place) can be a place that might not be actualized in the real world. But our interest in a dream world has never been subdued despite its impracticality. Political thinkers and philosophers have pursued to show how the world of perfection looks like or can be achieved. It is no wonder that Utopia or Dystopia is a recurring theme of SF novels as well.

Issue – Norms

President Trump has lost the election. We are bombarded with all those media articles about how the President would react, what he will do – another crazy, non-common-sensical behavior-, and what kind of norms he is going to break this time.

[Robert L. Heilbroner] The Worldly Philosophers

Title: The Worldly Philosophers
Author: Robert L. Heilbroner
Published: 1953
Publisher: Touchstone; New York
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-86214-9