Jacob Needleman, Philosopher
Bill Moyers (1989)
This chapter is about the impact money has had on the world and society of modern times. He says that money has become more vivid, and more intense that any of the experiences it brings us. It has become the chief representation to the life force. Cultures have always wanted other things like love, honor, respect, and power but not as much as they want money. Moyer makes a great analogy in saying that our pursuit of money having us living like animals. The animal world is the next level down from the human world. Animals are constantly looking for food, constantly preying on other animals to get it, we are constantly looking for money, and will get it by profiting off someone else’s loss. And how we lend money isn't any different, people don’t lend to people because they desperately need it, but because they profit from it. The medieval made laws against usury because they were based on an attempt to understand what money really meant. Our whole society is in debt, everyone owes everyone. It is constantly losing value, and there is no longer any intrinsic value behind it. We have less money on hand then we have bills out, it has become a promise with no actual value behind it. We are losing our human relationships with how instrumental and flexible money has become. The convenience we now have with credit cards, ATM's etc... is breaking a part of the relationships we make and the trust and security we sense. Moyer says that the notion of the dollar bill is just an illusion. The one-dollar bill and a ten-dollar bill have no value in and of itself, realistically they are the same thing, with a different number and face printed on it. It is based upon an unwritten agreement that we will treat it as valuable. Moyer tells us about the power of wonder, and that it can make us moral because it touches a part of our inner and truer self. When people experience some crisis, or miracle, or some major event together, as an earthquake, or a new rocket going to the stars, we become more ethical, or even moral. We become how nature intended, the natural man, the real self, which by nature is relational and sharing. When you're in a state of wonder, no one can commit a crime. But that does not last long, we tell ourselves it was just a moment and now it’s gone, and we return to our lives. He talks about people never getting what they need because they put so much value on a mere want. How we understand what we need is by searching for the meaning, the meaning is in the experience of the question, not the discovery of the answer. In being a philosopher helps you find meaning in questions like that. It helps you understand yourself in the world that you live in. It opens human beings up to the most important things in life.
Reflection
I wrote this review on an excerpt out of the book, Critical Thinking, Readings from the Literature of Business and Society, by Edward Engh, who is also my teacher for Business 1050. This book has contributions and compiling's from many famous notable authors from medieval times and modern times. The readings in this book has taught me so much about Modern Business, literature, philosophy and critical thinking in business. It was really hard to choose just one chapter because all of them has taught me so much. This book has taught me the importance of acknowledging what is going on in the world in which you live. It definitely makes me have a better understanding of the development and innovation of the market system. Philosophy in business has brought our society intellectual order to understand how it fits into the whole of society. Taking this class has brought me closer to the understanding and importance of my grasp of critical thinking in business.
