Energy, Human Energy, and Value: Review of The Economy of Human Energy

Abstract

Ostensibly the Carverian argument is based on the following premise, which is treated as an axiom:Human beings like other living creatures seem to be driven by a force that they neither understand nor care to resist, to keep on living, to consume food and transform it into human energy, and to increase their numbers, thus, in every way, enlarging the stream of human energy. In short, they act unconsciously, driven by their own nature, precisely as they would act consciously if they were convinced by unanswerable logic that the most valuable thing in the world was human energy or human life, and the most profitable thing in the world was to transform the largest possible sum of solar energy into human energy. (p. 12)

Citation

Emmett, R.B. (2011), "Energy, Human Energy, and Value: Review of The Economy of Human Energy", Emmett, R.B. (Ed.) Frank H. Knight in Iowa City, 1919–1928 (Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 29 Part 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 411-434. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0743-4154(2011)000029B050