I have launched a new website ? RadicalCentrism.org ? as a vehicle for these musings.

I came up with the term Radical Centrist on July 4, 2002, and started talking about it in January, 2003. However, I only now started looking for it on the web. Lo and behold, there is already a burgeoning Radical Middle community, which clearly I need to become a part of:

For better or worse, there is as yet no definitive "radical middle" (aka "planetary humanist," "third wave," etc.) political manifesto.

It sounds like I may have an opening. I find myself selfishly hoping they don't know what they're doing, so my ideas can have a chance. However, I find myself having to eat my own dog food of humility, as clearly a lot of what I thought was original has already been done, and in some cases at least done better.

Just started realizing that all my favorite terms are already in use.

• Bootstrap philosophy
  
• Radical Centrism
  
• Philisophical Pragmatism
  

Bootstrap is pretty far out there, but the rest use those terms more or less the way I do.

Basic review of Philosophy, since what I am really seeking is a general theory of moral value. Strongly Objectivist, to the point of claiming to (objectively!) represent all of Philosophy (that is, all other formulations are irrational and invalid) but still helpful if occasionally annoying.

Labarum
I've chosen the Labarum-N as the symbol for this project.

Adam Smith and the invisible hand in Plus Magazine

He made it clear in his writings that quite considerable structure was required in society before the invisible hand mechanism could work efficiently. For example, property rights must be strong, and there must be widespread adherence to moral norms, such as prohibitions against theft and misrepresentation. Theft was, to Smith, the worst crime of all, even though a poor man stealing from a rich man may increase overall happiness.

One extremely positive aspect of a market-based economy is that it forces people to think about what other people want. Smith saw this as a large part of what was good about the invisible hand mechanism. He identified two ways to obtain the help and co-operation of other people, upon which we all depend constantly. The first way is to appeal to the benevolence and goodwill of others. To do this a person must often act in a servile and fawning way, which Smith found repulsive, and he claimed it generally meets with very limited success. The second way is to appeal instead to other people's self-interest.

History of Economic Thought
Should read this to find out who all the players are.

Schools of Economics - Austrian

• a radically "subjectivist" strain of  Neoclassical marginalist economics (versus
  Classical School)


• a dedication to a prioristic "pure" theory, with an emphasis on
  "methodological individualism" (versus German
  Historical School).


• the theory of alternative cost which reduces
  all goods and factors, by "imputation", to the subjective valuation of consumer
  goods (versus Classical School and Marshallian Neoclassicals)


• a time-theoretic approach to capital and
  interest (versus everybody else, esp. Chicago)


• a monetary overinvestment theory of the
  business cycle (versus Keynesians)


• support for anti-cyclical monetary policy and, later, a free banking system (versus
  Monetarists)


• analyzing the time-consuming, disorganized competitive "market process" driven
  by specific actors in disequilibrium rather than the properties of anonymous equilibrium
  positions (versus Walrasians)


• a stress on uncertainty and information in
  the economy, in particular the informational role of prices (versus Walrasians)


• a concern with the psychology of economic actors, in particular, the supremacy of
  strategic, self-interested behavior when facing each other and political and social
  institutions (versus many)


• the importance of competitive markets and a price system in organizing a decentralized
  morass of economic agents with limited knowledge into a harmonious order. (versus
  Walrasians , Marxians and Keynesians)


• a general political, economic and philosophical defense of laissez-faire
  economic policy. (versus Keynesians, Marxians and Socialists).

MARK BLAUG critiques Sraffians & Ricardians
Essentially, Sraffa uses a Ricardian model to claim that national output is completely independent of wages, prices, or consumer demand.  Accordingly, governments can pursue their grandest redistributive schemes without damaging economic growth in the least.


by Mark Skousen

ASSOCIATION FOR SOCIAL ECONOMICS
Social Economics seeks to explore the ethical foundations and implications of economic analysis, along with the individual and social dimensions of economic problems, and to help shape economic policy that is consistent with the integral values of the person and a humane community.

International Confederation of
Associations for Pluralism in Economics
Who's who in the economic underworld.

New Institutionalism- A Tutorial
The predecessor to Institutionalism is the German historical school. It was a mix of good ideas later adopted by Veblen and others, and a lot of nationalism which was later adopted by some unsavory German politicians.

Veblen's economic theories begin with instincts. He believed that man was meant to be studied as an animal, not a mechanical automaton using equilibrium models borrowed from physics. Veblen assumed that man has an instinct for workmanship, an instinct for idle curiosity and a 'parental bent' or an instinct for his own and children's survival.
These instincts gave rise to habits of thought, or institutions.

Veblen also made contributions to the theory of the firm. His main thesis was that production is undertaken for two reasons, to create useful things, 'the machine process' and to accumulate cash, 'the pecuniary process.'

Elements of Evolutionary Economics
One narrow definition (Andersen) is that evolutionary-economic explanation in the narrow sense is an explanation of a fact of economic life by reference to previous facts as well as to a causal link which (immediately or in reconstructed form) may be shown to include
(1) a mechanism of preservation and transmission,
(2) a mechanism of variety-creation,
(3) a mechanism of selection,
and which includes or may be enhanced by introducing
(4) a mechanism of segregation between different "populations".

The Association for Evolutionary Economics
The Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) is an international organization of economists and other social scientists devoted to analysis of economics as evolving, socially constructed and politically governed systems. 

The intellectual heritage of AFEE is that of the Original Institutional Economics (OIE) created and developed by early twentieth-century economists such as Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, and Wesley Mitchell. Over recent decades, this legacy has evolved to address such contemporary issues as: 

• 
  The role of diverse cultures in economic performance. 



• 
  Domestic and international inequalities of income. 



• 
  The roles of social, economic and political power in shaping economic outcomes. 



• 
  Globalization and the increasing weight of multinational corporations in
  the international economy. 



• 
  The need for expanding use of modern technologies to relieve want. 



• 
  The urgent need to for awareness of the impact of new technology on the
  biosphere. 



• 
  The ways in which economic thought is affected by and affects always changing
  economics. 

Other Heterodox associations

• 
  AFEE institutionalists maintain close intellectual ties with evolutionary
  economists in the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy
  (EAEPE)



• 
  The Japanese Association for Evolutionary Economics (JAFEE),



• 
  The Association for Institutional Thought (AFIT)



• 
  Post-Keynesian study centers --Post
  Keynesian Thought Internet Archive



• 
  The Karl Polanyi Institute



• 
  ICARE



• 
  Center for Economic Policy Analysis
  (CEPA)



• 
  Communications for a Sustainable Future



• 
  URPE Homepage



• 
  Dollars & Sense
  Magazine



• 
  Left Business Observer



• 
  Electronic Policy Network



• 
  Corporate
  Accountability Project



• 
  Post Keynesian Thought Internet
  Archive

History of heterodoxity
By heterodox economics, we mean Marxism, institutionalism, Social Economics, Post Keynesian Economics, Sraffian Economics, Feminist Economics, Georgist Economics, Evolutionary Economics, Historical Economics, and Austrian Economics.

The heterodox economics portal
The main activity of the Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE) is the organisation of its annual international conference, where all economists are encouraged to come together and hear a diversity of papers on topics not well represented in mainstream economics. Papers from a plurality of perspectives and topic areas are encouraged.

The Other Canon

One of the more respected alternatives to neoclassical economics. The Other Canon is 'Reality Economics', the study of the economy as a real object, not defined in terms of the adoption of core assumptions and techniques. A production-based economic theory where economic development is an intrinsically uneven process, The Other Canon provides tools for economic development and industrial policy. It appears to be identified as "instituationalist" economics.

Neoclassical Economics
by E. Roy Weintraub

A great summary of neoclassical theory, how it got here, and the alternatives.