Sweet sorrow

Author: Marshall Sahlins
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Don't read a bit of Sahlins without a little courage not to be laughed at. This book is a condensed version of the entire content of Sahlins' course on the history of Western social thought at the University of Chicago, showcasing a small part of Sahlins' inner journey. In this long article, Sahlins' focus is not only on the cultural symbolic logic of the emergence of capitalism but also includes a critique of a series of foundational theories and paradigms in Western economics and social sciences. He argues that Western economics and social sciences are the legalization and extension of Western cultural symbolic logic and religious mythology. Their foundation is not based on faithful observation of reality but on the religious mythological representation of the relationship between humans and nature in the West.