Toward a Sartrean Economics

Abstract

Despite the absence of a systematic analysis of economics in Sartre's work, we argue that a Sartrean economics can indeed be said to exist, even if it is an economics that still awaits development. The status that Sartre accords to the concept of scarcity allows him to advance the critique of economism begun by Karl Polanyi, who, for his part, had been satisfied simply to challenge the reduction of economics to its formal definition. Scarcity, Sartre teaches us, should not be submitted to the process of instrumental reason but should be considered as a fact of human history. Economic analysis, meanwhile, should not be based solely on the theme of man's confrontation with a typically ungrateful nature but should rather be articulated through the concept of the world as elaborated in Sartrean philosophy.