Poetic Economics

What if solving the climate crisis requires poetry as much as economics? This book makes the groundbreaking case for “poetic economics”—where beauty, ethics, and sufficiency replace the cold calculus of endless growth. When markets have lost the plot an innovative union of science and poetry charts a path toward an economy that serves life—not just profit. The book shows how "poetizing" re-roots calculative rationality to overcome the civilizational knowledge problem of capitalist calculation. Rejecting the reduction of nature to quantifiable abstractions, poetizing harnesses the holistic openness of existence and human self-actualization to orient a sufficiency economy. Exploring the intellectual friendship between economist K. William Kapp and poet Ernst Wiechert, the book examines the intersections of science, ethics, and aesthetics. It reframes the economy as an open subsystem embedded within a bio-cultural and natural whole, shifting the understanding of "openness" from technical thermodynamics to philosophical insight. Consequently, "social costing" is reimagined as a deliberative process grounded in the ethics of preventing suffering. Ultimately, the book proposes a "poetic economics"—an art of being rooted in existential truth. By integrating aesthetics and eros into the substantive rationality of socio-ecological economics, it offers a framework for sufficiency and a more ethical relationship with nature. Through its innovative conceptual tools, critical perspectives, and philosophical insights, this book will appeal to heterodox and socio-ecological economists seeking alternatives to neoliberal ideologies.