[GJM] Universal Paradigm

[Rodney Shakespeare]

Dear All,

This email is entitled "Universal Paradigm".  In the previous email I informed you of the publication of The Modern Universal  Paradigm by myself (please go to www.binaryeconomics.net for more information and to purchase).

The reference to "Universal Paradigm" is to a new view of reality which creates not only a new economics, but a new politics, a new morality and a new justice.  The implications are of something which shows everything in a new light, opens up new vistas and changes the landscape adding new flora and fauna.  This is the very latest and most advanced thinking.

I mention this because there is another book (whose publication has been delayed for about three months) by Masudul Alan Choudhury and myself --The Universal Paradigm and Islamic World-systems: Economy, Society, Ethics and Science. Masudul is the leading Islamic economist (and, of course, I rely on him and colleagues for information about, and understanding of, Islam) and -- this may surprise many people -- the fact is that a very modern economics (which deepens democracy by giving an everyday economic power in addition to the political vote) stems naturally from Islam once you see the connections between things. Indeed, the book makes a huge effort to find the true connections not just in aspects of economics and finance, but also in society and in the sciences. 

 Perhaps most surprising of all, this new universal paradigm also stems naturally from the other faiths BUT it is a question whether they will be the first to see what truly lies within their own heritage looked at anew and so take up the new thinking.  In the Preface, I give the reasons why Islam is likely to be the first to take it up and why non-Islamic socieites are likely to remain locked for longer within the old paradigm.  That said,  if people can break out from the old paradigm, they can take up the new thinking themselves, call it what they like,  and make it their own.  

The essence of the economics/finance part of the universal paradigm can be called binary economics (from a non-Islamic point of view), or Christian economics, or  Islamic economics and finance (as Trisakti calls it) because it is drawn from what is truly within Islam, from its spirit and substance rather than what emanates from a specious, and ultimately destructive, literalism .  One result of literalism, for example, is "Islamic Banking" which provdes a veneer of Islamic identity rather than the substance.

It is probably best to start with The Modern Universal Paradigm because of its clarity and then, if you like the insights of universal paradigm, move later on to The Universal Paradigm and Islamic World-systems: Economy, Society, Ethics and Science when it becomes available. 

Rodney Shakespeare


PS.  I should have added in a previous email that "Islamic Banking" does its best to avoid non-halal things such as alcohol and tobacco.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://globaljusticemovement.net/pipermail/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net/attachments/20070811/2714c138/attachment.html