• oreword by Vaclav Havel


• Acknowledgments and Thanks


• Introduction


• PART I: Ancient Economics


• Chapter 1: The Epic of Gilgamesh: On effectiveness, Immortality and the Economics of Friendship


• Chapter 2: The Old Testament: Earthliness and Goodness


• Chapter 3: Ancient Greece


• Chapter 4: Christianity: Spirituality in the Material World


• Chapter 5: Descartes the Mechanic


• Chapter 6: Bernard Mandeville's Beehive of Vice


• Chapter 7: Adam Smith, Blacksmith of Economics


• PART II: Blasphemous Thoughts


• Chapter 8: Need for Greed - The History of Want


• Chapter 9: Progress and Sabbath Economics


• Chapter 10: The Axis of Good and Evil and the Bibles of Economics


• Chapter 11: The History of the Invisible Hand of the Market and Homo Oeconomicus


• Chapter 12: The History of Animal Spirits - the Dream Never Sleeps


• Chapter 13: MetaMathematics


• Chapter 14: Masters of Truth: Science, Myths and Faith


• Conclusion: Where the Wild Things Are


• Bibliography


• Index

Tomas Sedlacek lectures at Charles University and is a member of the National Economic Council in Prague, where the original version of this book was a national bestseller and was also adapted as a popular theater-piece. He worked as an advisor of Vaclav Havel, the first Czech president after the fall of communism, and is a regular columnist and popular radio and TV commentator.

In The Economics of Good and Evil, Sedlacek challenges widely-held beliefs about economics and culture by tracing the study and themes of economics throughout history.