Noted economist Douglas Vickers reexamines the relationship between economics and moral philosophy. That relationship, once very strong, is again the subject of increasing attention and discussion both within and beyond the academy. Vickers reestablishes the substantial bridges between ethical philosophy and economics. He addresses three main issues: first, the historical means by which economics has consciously surrendered its original association with ethical categories and criteria; second, the need to articulate the appropriate thoughtforms and vocabulary of ethical theory; and third, the illustration of areas in economics where ethical awareness is desirable and should be allowed to exert influence. This work is a major analysis which will be of considerable interest to economists, the business community, government regulators, and all concerned with economic decisionmaking in modern society.

The place of money capital in the theory of the firm has remained a relatively neglected question in traditions of economic analysis. In this highly integrative work, issues in production, pricing, capital investment and financial theory are brought to new levels of interdependence. Developing a three-part argument, Money Capital in the Theory of the Firm deals successively with the theoretical issues and analytic motivation, the neoclassical tradition and postclassical perspectives. In doing so, it presents a self-contained foundation in the basic structures of microeconomic analysis relating to optimize decision making in the firm and in the accounting concepts and statistical apparatus of probability theory relevant to the neoclassical aspects of the argument. Additionally, the book provides the essential mathematical development of such advanced topics as utility functions defined over stochastic arguments, the equilibrium theory of financial asset prices and yields, the cost of money capital, and investment decision criteria. This book makes an important contribution to the formation of new and analytically richer perspectives in the important area of economics it addresses. It will be of particular interest to those working in economic theory and microeconomics, and their advanced students.

The preoccupation of financial theory with static, timeless, equilibrium analysis has given rise to an orthodoxy that avoids the problems of uncertainty in the world. This work establishes new perspectives from which contemporary financial theory can be evaluated. Echoing Keynes' observation that "Human decisions . . . cannot depend on strict mathematical expectation," Douglas Vickers explains why most decisions in economics and finance are not made under conditions to which the calculus of probability applies.The author proposes a "new realism" in financial theory that takes into account the uncertainty in personal and economic decisions. Both business firms and financial investors, he contends, acquire an important perspective on their alternatives by focusing on the transitional, disequilibrium processes in financial markets rather than on their sup- posed equilibrium conditions. This involves for economic decisions an understanding of "time" as "historic" in a genuine operational sense rather than as merely a logical variable. The notion of probability should be replaced by that of possibility, the concept that the British economist G. L. S. Shackle has called "potential surprise."In Part I, Vickers' innovative approach leads to a careful study of the "false trading" that occurs in real and financial markets. Part II provides an exposition and an evaluation of the equilibrium theory of financial asset prices. The new analytical apparatus is applied in Part Ill to investment decision making in the firm and to the choice of financial asset portfolios, as well as to the questions of asset trading and changes in portfolio composition.A scholarly and constructive work, Financial Markets in the Capitalist Process will generate controversy among professionals and debate among students for many years to come.

The place of money capital in the theory of the firm has remained a relatively neglected question in traditions of economic analysis. In this highly integrative work, issues in production, pricing, capital investment and financial theory are brought to new levels of interdependence. Developing a three-part argument, Money Capital in the Theory of the Firm deals successively with the theoretical issues and analytic motivation, the neoclassical tradition and postclassical perspectives. In doing so, it presents a self-contained foundation in the basic structures of microeconomic analysis relating to optimize decision making in the firm and in the accounting concepts and statistical apparatus of probability theory relevant to the neoclassical aspects of the argument. Additionally, the book provides the essential mathematical development of such advanced topics as utility functions defined over stochastic arguments, the equilibrium theory of financial asset prices and yields, the cost of money capital, and investment decision criteria. This book makes an important contribution to the formation of new and analytically richer perspectives in the important area of economics it addresses. It will be of particular interest to those working in economic theory and microeconomics, and their advanced students.

Description: Competing worldviews cast their impact on the church and the Christian confession. What does it mean to be a Christian in an age that threatens cultural dissolution? Related questions press on a calm consideration of the meaning of the Christian life. Who is Jesus Christ of whose salvific work the Christian confession depends? Why did Jesus Christ come into the world? What is to be said of the human condition following the Adamic fall, which, as John Milton says, "brought death into the world and all our woe"? What is the Christian's highest good, the grounds on which it has life-determining relevance, and what are its existential implications? In this closely reasoned and biblically informed examination of those questions, Douglas Vickers concludes that the Christian's highest good exists in "fellowship with the Father." The practical and everyday significance of that fellowship is addressed at length, and the meaning and prospect of each Christian's eternal life is shown to be grounded in a vital and indissoluble union with Christ.

The confession the church makes to the world sits oddly in the contemporary cultural complex. Intellectual fashions in the marketplace of ideas have moved beyond an accommodation of biblical-theological categories. Philosophy is unsure of its status in an amorphous postmodernism, and theology threatens to degenerate into intellectual experimentation. They have become mutually suspicious and hesitant of conversation. But a heavy fault lies with the church's own confessional status. For what is it the church has to say to the world? Has it preserved confessional continuity with the Reformation theology that rediscovered its biblical foundations and liberated it from intellectual and confessional shackles? Has the church surrendered the possibility of relevance by having lost its own historic identity? And is it necessary to conclude, as a result, that contemporary culture is no longer penetrable by any word from the old wells of divine disclosure? In this brief but challenging book, Douglas Vickers brings the Christian confession to the forefront of consideration and reestablishes a theology grounded in historic verities sustained by the scriptural declarations. In straightforward and accessible terms, Being and Belief addresses the meaning of biblical truth for Christian understanding and Christian life.

The relation between Christianity and the claims of reason has been at times sharp and conflicting and at times symbiotic. Noted scholars in the church and in the secular academy have asked what Christianity has to do with culture and what the Christian mind has to say, or should be saying, by way of critique in the marketplace of ideas. In Discovering the Christian Mind, Douglas Vickers argues insightfully that prior to the question of what the Christian mind should be doing or saying is that of what the Christian mind is. Vickers shows that the true identity of the Christian mind derives from the Holy Spirit's conveyance to the soul of the grace of regeneration. The conclusion that regeneration is prior to knowing, and that those know truly who know God truly, challenges thought and opinion.

The time-honored theology that the Reformation bequeathed to us is now being discounted even in many evangelical churches. New perspectives challenge old verities. The need to return to biblical foundations is urgent. In Divine Redemption and the Refuge of Faith, Douglas Vickers has raised the pressing questions: Who is Jesus Christ? What is the human condition? And in what respect is that human condition addressed by the presence of Jesus Christ in the world? In lucid and arresting terms, Dr. Vickers provides answers developed from three basic theses that structured Reformation thought: o the claim of Athanasius against the Arians and the Sabellians that the self-existing, autotheotic Second Person of the Godhead came as Jesus Christ; o the doctrine of Augustine who rightly argued against Pelagius that the human will was bound in sin as a result of Adamfs fall; and o the teaching of Anselm who returned theology to its biblical roots when he claimed that Christ in his atonement provided a necessary and complete satisfaction for sin. Divine Redemption and the Refuge of Faith provides a biblical-theological corrective to contemporary doctrinal deviations. It is recommended to all who are committed to the unchanging truths of the Christian confession, and will be of substantial benefit to Christians seeking a biblical explanation of the state of affairs in the world and in the church, as well as to theological students and the academic community.

We live in an age that increasingly flirts with a new paganism. As new systems of theological belief clamor for accommodation within the church, Christianity's time-tested confessional heritage is abandoned. Deviant thought forms trickle down from the pulpit to weaken worshipers whose grounds of belief are already faltering. Douglas Vickers addresses this situation in The Texture of Truth by calling the church back to cardinal doctrines that have historically emboldened the Christian faith. Here, in straightforward terms that address the worshiper in the pew, is a sound articulation of what Dr. Vickers aptly refers to as "essential theology in the life and walk of faith." The imperatives of Christian doctrine, soundly understood and held in biblical proportion, will enrich the meaning of the Christian life and the believer's progress in sanctification. The Texture of Truth addresses the doctrines of God, Scripture, the divine covenants, creation and the Fall, the Person of Christ and his redemptive offices, the application of redemption, and the place of the Christian in the church and in the world. --Joel R. Beeke

What is man, and what relationship does man have to God? Dr. Vikers's answers to these questions intelligently defend and scripturally support the Reformed doctrines and provide the mental and spiritual fiber to answer unbelieving friends and family.