AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	68. Exploring new dimensions of religion and entrepreneurship
Paper ID	491
Author(s)	Thornton, Robert James
Paper	No paper submitted
Abstract	The connection between religion and economy is not new. This paper examines some 17th to 19th century connections between economic and religious thought in order to interrogate some 20th century South African connections between religion and economic activities. I briefly explore (1) Isaac Newton’s mathematical and physical investigation of alchemy and Biblical prophesy together with his role as Master of the Mint in England from 1690 to his death in 1727; (2) G W Leibniz’s logical investigation of Theodicy and its relation to the emerging mathematics of calculus and emerging European capitalism; (3) Adam Smith’s engaging but essentially occult notion of the ‘hidden hand’ as a way of explaining ‘market forces’; (4) William Stanley Jevons’ elaboration of a mathematicised economics based on the notion of ‘marginal’ (that is final) utility by way of a thought experiment involving a loaf of bread; (5) and finally turn to exploring contemporary South African religious practice and belief in the (predominately) Swazi-speaking region around Swaziland. This exploration attempts to show, first of all, that the connection between religion, economy and the occult is scarcely new, and that some insights from early European exploration of these ideas can shed light on understanding contemporary belief and practices. The connections suggest that ideas of zombies and witches that are currently prevalent in the South African low veld may be understood as an indigenous theory of the ‘hidden hand.’ As such, zombies and witches are understood not so much as ‘fearful fantasies’ but as ways of thinking about the mysterious-seeming vagaries and complexities of wealth and poverty, entrepreneurship and the jealousies that economic success usually engenders.

Marginal Utilities, Time and the ‘Hidden Hand’ of Zombies