Economic Harmonies and the Musicality of the Scientific Metaphor

• Main Author: Dumitru Miron
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academy of Economic Studies of Bucharest 2019-08-01
• Series: Amfiteatru Economic
• Subjects: Book review
• Online Access: http://www.amfiteatrueconomic.ro/temp/Article_2850.pdf

Bearing no intention of blasphemy, I would like to begin my review of two excellent books with the following paraphrase, and I shall leave it to the readers to contemplate it throughout their reading: “blessed are the wise,... for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and the gratitude of the world”. When I began to reread Octavian Jora’s books, my thoughts evoked Paulo Coelho’s invitation to reflect upon a truth – that “the word bears power, and the written word is even more powerful”. It would seem that this adage inspired the author of these books, who managed to embed as much truth as he could in the pages of his works. The state of mind that the books in question bring about serves as a most appropriate abode for the ideas of Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, who described books as “daughters of the heavens themselves, descended on earth to alleviate the sorrows of mankind”. We must nevertheless admit that most books cannot, on their own, alleviate the suffering of humanity – many a times, they cannot even mend that of their authors, let alone those of their readers. However, some may shed honest light on the real causes underlying the symptoms of the “patients” to better prepare them for genuinely helpful therapies in lieu of superficial, ineffective cures. It is in the latter category that the two books reviewed here most undoubtedly belong.