Utility and Identity: A Catholic Social Teaching Perspective on the Economics of Good and Evil

Abstract

This paper discusses two key claims of Tomas Sedláček’s Economics of Good and Evil in the light of Catholic social teaching—that (i) mainstream economics cannot grasp the domain of the human because of its focus on ‘utility-maximisation’ and (ii) that human interiority with its wild desires is at the roots of economic dynamics. I call these claims the ‘H-claim’ and the ‘I-claim’ respectively. After having clarified these claims I look at Catholic social teaching and its perspective on interiority (underlining a sense of structure and order of the inner) and on the relationship between personal micro-relations and structural macro-relations (underlining consistency and permeability). In this light, I suggest, in a third step, an understanding of ‘the inner dimension’ of economics and social thinking making use of the concept of intangible infrastructures.