Heinrich Pesch

Contents

Heinrich Pesch, S.J. (17 September 1854 – 1 April 1926) was a German Jesuit philosopher and economist of the Solidarist school.[1][2][3][4] His major work, Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie,[5] is generally regarded as a source for Pope Pius XI's social encyclical Quadragesimo anno.[6][7][8][9]

Biography

Pesch was born in Cologne on 17 September 1854. After studying law at Bonn, Pesch entered the Society of Jesus in 1876. He made his novitiate with exiled German Jesuits in the Netherlands. For his studies of philosophy (1878–1881) Pesch was sent to Bleijenbeek, also in the Netherlands. He completed his theological studies at Ditton Hall (1884–1888). While in England, Pesch lectured for a few years at the Stella Matutina school. He was ordained a priest in 1888.

From 1892 until 1900, Pesch was spiritual director at the Mainz seminary, where he wrote his first book Liberalism, Socialism and Christian Order. Through lectures of the publicist Rudolf Meyer Pesch became acquainted with the teachings of Karl Marx and Johann Karl Rodbertus. After a renewed study of economics with Gustav von Schmoller and Adolph Wagner in Berlin (1900–1902), Pesch moved to Luxembourg and worked on his major opus Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie. He died at the age of 71 in Valkenburg on 1 April 1926.

Works

  • Liberalismus, Socialismus und Christliche Gesellschaftsordnung, Vol. 2, Herder, 1900.
  • Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, Freiburg im Breisgau, Herder, 1905–23 (5 Vol.)
  • Die Soziale Befähigung der Kirche, Verlag der Germania, 1911.
  • Ethik und Volkswirtschaft, Herdersche Verlagshandlung, 1918.

Works in English translation

  • "Christian Solidarism." In: Joseph N. Moody (Ed.), Church and Society. New York: Arts, Inc., 1953.
  • Heinrich Pesch on Solidarist Economics: Excerpts from the Lehrbuch Der Nationalökonomie. Translated by Rupert J. Ederer. University Press of America, 1998.
  • Liberalism, Socialism and Christian Social Order, Translated by Rupert J. Ederer. Edwin Mellen Press, 2000 (5 vol.) Book 1: The Philosophical Roots Of Economic Liberalism; Book 2: The Free Market Economy Or Economic Order?; Book 3: Private Property As A Social Institution; Book 4: The Christian Concept Of The State; Book 5: Modern Socialism
  • Teaching Guide to Economics, Translated and Edited by Rupert J. Ederer. Edwin Mellen Press, 2002–2003 (10 Vol.) [10][11] Book One: Foundations for Economic Life (2 vols.); Book Two: Economic Systems and the Nature and Dispositional Causes of the Wealth of a Nation (2 vols.); Book Three: The Active Causes in the Ongoing Economic Process (2 vols.); Book Four: The Satisfaction of a Nation’s Wants as the Purpose of the National Economy and Production (2 vols.); Book Five: General Economics (2 vols.)
  • Ethics and the National Economy, Translated with an introduction by Rupert Ederer, IHS Press, 2003.

References

  1. 1.Wishloff, Jim. "Solidarist Economics: The Legacy of Heinrich Pesch," Review of Business 27 (2), 2006, pp. 33-46.
  2. 2.Mueller, Franz H. "Social Economics: The Perspective of Pesch on Solidarism," Review of Social Economy 35 (3), 1977.
  3. 3.Barron, Randall. "Solidarism and Heinrich Pesch," Forum for Social Economics 12 (1), 1982.
  4. 4.Tomanek, Jared Q. "Heinrich Pesch on Solidarist Economics," Archived 2013-03-25 at the Wayback Machine The Distributist Review, January 18, 2012.
  5. 5."The monumental work of the German Jesuit Heinrich Pesch, Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, created an economic and social doctrine called solidarism. Pesch based his economic analysis on the bond, factual and moral, which unites the members of society with one another and the social whole, and the whole with its members. Since man is a being not merely social by nature, but whose actual existence is always in a concrete social environment, the abstract theories of individualism can neither explain nor guide society; on the other hand the socialist theories which tend toward denial and destruction of individual life make an equally unreal abstraction. Solidarism, a mean between these extremes, bases social unity on human nature and the common good. Since solidarism is a directive or ethical principle as well as an explicative principle, it must be based on moral reality. The moral principle of social life is the common good. The basis of solidarism is the principle of the mutual rights and duties of society and its members. Pesch called this principle social justice." — Shields, Leo W. The History and Meaning of the Term Social Justice, Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Notre Dame, 1941, p. 37.
  6. 6.Grosschmid, Geza B. "Pesch's Concept of the Living Wage in 'Quadragesimo Anno'," Review of Social Economy 12 (2), 1954.
  7. 7.Ederer, Rupert J. "Heinrich Pesch, Solidarity, And Social Encyclicals," Review of Social Economy 49 (4), 1991.
  8. 8.Krason, Stephen M. "Principles of Heinrich Pesch's Solidarism," Archived 2013-12-17 at the Wayback Machine The Catholic Social Science Review 14, 2009, pp. 477-483.
  9. 9.Schulz, Jr., William Patric (2017). Dorothy Day's Distributism and Her Vision for Catholic Politics (PhD thesis). Louisiana State University.
  10. 10.Storck, Thomas. "Lehrbuch der Nationalokonomie/Teaching Guide to Economics, by Heinrich Pesch, translated by Rupert J. Ederer," The Chesterton Review 30 (3/4), Fall/Winter 2004.
  11. 11.Storck, Thomas. "A Giant Among Catholic Economists," Archived 2018-08-12 at the Wayback Machine New Oxford Review, February 2005.