Land and the Given Economy: The Hermeneutics and Phenomenology of Dwelling

What if the well-being of the economy depended not so much on mathematical formulae and highly abstract models but on perceiving the philosophical significance of a basic feature of our existence? And what if this feature had been, for the most part, overlooked by economists and philosophers interested in economics?

If the disjointed state of economic affairs is due to a misalignment with the understanding of the basis of our existence, there is much that philosophical analysis can contribute to economic theory. Whilst philosophy and economic thought have had significant interrelations since Aristotle, Karl Marx was the last major philosopher to prioritize the nature of existence over the economic when he designated material necessity and our labouring capacity as foundational concepts.

Today, however, the kinds of models used by economists tend to see matters relating to philosophical conceptions of existence as external to their discipline. Similarly, much philosophical engagement with economics tends to narrow its investigation to relations and concepts internal to a given model in order to assess its coherency. At the same time, philosophers critical of economics tend to offer little more than either a condemnation of capitalism or an endorsement of Marxism. There is a need, then, for philosophy to revive the pursuit of understanding the nature of existence and its bearing on the human economy.

In this book, I show how the landed basis of our existence converges meaningfully with economics. When understood philosophically, our landed existence suggests a form of economic practice first mentioned but inchoately developed by classical economics. I argue landed existence implies seeing the surplus value generated by land as a source of public revenue. I employ phenomenology when discussing the significance of our landed existence and hermeneutics when assessing the forgotten role of land in classical and neoclassical economic theory. Whilst some books have discussed the role of land in economic history and theory, none have treated it seriously as a philosophical concept.