The real cause of the wealth of nations—and corporations—is human ingenuity and creativity. The future belongs to those with wisdom to understand the human person, ideas to inspire human action, and skills to harness human potential.
It seems almost sacrilegious for an economist to say it, but economic liberty—while essential—is not the cause or source of the wealth of nations. Human ingenuity and creativity are. While economic and political liberty are necessary to leave space for human effort, the real hero is the human person, with our unique capacity for free, rational, creative action in the first place. But if people are the ultimate resource, the challenge is to appreciate and understand the nature of that potential. Across firms specifically, and economies and societies generally, we need to explore what conditions develop human capacities, what institutions foster their application, and what ideas inspire and motivate that action. That is the mission of the Center for Person, Economy, and Society at Mount St. Mary’s University. Since 2010, our vocation as a Christian academic institution has been to highlight the unique power of the human person, the implications of that for business, economy, and society, and all in a way that points back to the wisdom of the Creator who imparted these incredible gifts to us.
[I]n the knowledge society into which we are moving, individuals are central. Knowledge is not impersonal, like money. Knowledge does not reside in a book, a databank, a software program; they carry only information. Knowledge is always embodied in a person; carried by a person; created, augmented, or improved by a person; applied by a person, used or misused by a person. The shift to the knowledge society therefore puts the person in the center.
We come at this through the classic lens of freedom. Freedom requires a combination of both external liberty (limiting excessive constraints/forces around one) and internal freedom, i.e. the capacity for free, rational action only humans have. Historically, much of the focus was on creating institutions to protect external liberty. Today, there is ever more emphasis on the human internal ability itself, of the importance of that potential for free, creative action for businesses specifically, and society generally, and how to foster that capacity. Focus on potential unifies the classic concerns of external liberty with the newfound depth of the human person, and provides a common project for business, economy, and society.
Preserving freedom, and building on the productive potential freedom affords, requires sophisticated understanding of the need for and interplay between both dimensions. Christian universities with their emphasis on integration are uniquely positioned to provide that complex intellectual synthesis, from philosophical and theological appreciation of human potential to applications. They contribute to liberty and productivity in society by integrating across the wisdom about the human experience, uniting our insights across person, business, economy, and society, to inform our theories and policies in those today. The Center for Person, Economy, and Society assists the Bolte School of Business in building a distinction around sophisticated understanding of human potential and its implications for business. We also assist the Mount’s Christian mission in drawing that understanding together and building our intellectual community around that excellence.
The productivity of knowledge is going to be the determining factor in the competitive position of a company, an industry, an entire country. No country, industry, or company has any “natural” advantage or disadvantage. The only advantage it can possess is the ability to exploit universally available knowledge. The only thing that increasingly will matter in national as in international economics is management’s performance in making knowledge productive.
The BB&T Center was funded via BB&T Bank’s program to encourage universities in exploring the moral foundations of the free market.
The painting Marketplace, with the Flagellation, the Ecce Homo and the Bearing of the Cross in the Background by a follower of Flemish Painter Joachim Beuckelaer wonderfully illustrates the approach of the Center for Person, Economy, and Society. The foreground includes the rich array of goods and activity of the market. But the scene involves far more. First, it focuses on the people involved, the men and women whose rational, creative work ultimately is the power of the market. Second, the market activity is in society, captured in the receding view of the buildings of the city, giving way to the world in the trees and mountains beyond. Finally, the man in front points to the scene of Pilate presenting Christ to the crowd after he has been scourged. The Ecce Homo (Behold the man!) has double meaning for CPES. First, our Christian mission uses the setting of business and economy to draw attention to and understand the person, i.e. “Behold the person.” Understanding our potential for free, rational, creative activity is essential for all study of people, especially that of business and economy. On the other hand, the wonder of our abilities points, as does Pilate, to Christ our creator, who gave these wondrous gifts, abilities to us.
We further add, however, Rodin’s The Thinker to particularly emphasize the role of reason as that which is so distinctly human, and the real cause of the wealth of nations.
John Larrivee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Economics
Director, BB&T Center for Person, Economy, and Society
Richard J. Bolte, Sr. School of Business
Mount St. Mary's University
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
301-447-5396
larrivee@msmary.edu