Book Review: Richard Morehouse reviews Wayne I. Henry, A Philosopher’s Guide to Natural Capitalism: A Sustainable Future Within Reach

Abstract

Introduction: Professor Henry is a philosopher who teaches courses in the history of analytic philosophy, logic, business, globalization, and sustainability. Wayne Henry and I share an affinity for Philosophy for Children and Community of Inquiry pedagogy. In private discussions led by Wayne Henry, which included Susan Gardner and myself at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (ICPIC) conference in Vancouver, we collaborated on an article vaguely related to the focus of this book: ‘Combatting Consumer Madness’ (2017). Among the reasons that I chose to review this work was to understand how the ideas we wrote about in “consumer madness” had evolved in depth and breadth. To my great pleasure, reading A Philosopher’s Guide to Natural Capitalism: A Sustainable Future Within Reach is much more than expanding that article; it is a philosophical re-conception of capitalism and a profound rethinking of the movement of capitalism from classic liberalism to progressive liberalism to natural capitalism.