The Competitiveness of Nations

in a Global Knowledge-Based Economy

April 2003

WIP Page

The Competitiveness of Nations in a Global Knowledge-Based Economy

The Thin Version

HHC April 2, 2003

 

Prologue

Below, please find a thin version of my final thesis.  I briefly describe the central premise, chapter content, estimated page size and provide links to my previous work from which final chapter content will be molded.  Also, please find attached, a detailed  pro forma Table of Contents and master graphic.

 

Premise

Only an individual human being – a natural person – can ‘know’.  Therefore, the root of a knowledge-based economy is the natural person – as producer, consumer and conserver of knowledge.  Natural persons live in different nation-states defined by differing constitutions, culture, history, language, law and religion.  These factors collectively focus the knowing of a natural person in distinct directions with differing intensity.  It is such differences in national ways of ‘knowing’ that forms the foundation for the competitiveness of nations in a global knowledge-based economy.

 

Introduction

In the Introduction I will:

i - define my methodology – transdisciplinary induction;

ii – specify the dominant disciplines from which evidence has been extracted including analytic psychology, comparative international law specifically intellectual property rights; cultural economics, history of economic thought, the history, philosophy & sociology of science; and,

iii - define operative concepts such as circular causality, overlapping temporal gestalten and tooled knowledge.

Estimated Size: 15 pages

Sources: Written Submission at Oral Comprehensives, Feb 2003; Thomas Kuhn's Pelican Brief November 2002;

Chapter I: Of Natural & Legal Persons

Emergence of the ‘natural person’ occurred with the end of an ancien regime of subordination caused by the republican revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.  It is summed up in the American Declaration of Independence as ‘all men are created equal’.  This political revolution was paralleled, first in England, with emergence of the free market economy, i.e., free from political interference. 

A natural person is a legal person, but a legal person is not necessarily a natural person.  Legal persons, as bodies corporate including governments, exist as legal fictions enjoying the same rights and benefits as natural persons under Anglo-American Common Law but not, especially with respect to of knowledge, under the European Civil Code tradition.  This has led to different knowledge production outcomes.

If the natural person is the root of knowledge then the psychological mechanisms whereby such persons know must be established if what is bought, sold and conserved in knowledge markets is to be understood.  Drawing upon the findings of modern analytic psychology (Jungian psychology) an economic epistemology has been developed.  Its trans-national implications will be exposed.

Estimated Size: 50 pages

Sources: The Labour Theory of Knowledge & Its Corollary March 2003; Copyright C.P.U. Creators, Proprietors & Users 2000; Christianity, Censorship and Copyright in English-speaking Cultures 1992

 

Chapter II: Of Domains & Property

At the societal level, the economic epistemology is reflected by institutionalized knowledge domains that vary between countries.  In Canada, the dominant domains reflected by grant-giving councils include the Natural & Engineering Sciences (NES), the Humanities & the Social Sciences (HSS); and the Arts.  The origins and history of these knowledge domains will be examined.

Given its public good nature, if knowledge is to be bought and sold then it must be converted into property from which others may be alienated and from whom rent may be collected.  The origins and history of seven distinct forms of intellectual property will be examined including: copyrights, designs, know-how & trade secrets, moral rights; patents, sui generis rights and trademarks.  The relationship between IPRs, the economic epistemology and knowledge domains will also be established including the fact that such rights exist so that the public domain or ‘the knowledge commons’ may grow and develop.

Estimated Size: 50 pages

Sources: The Labour Theory of Knowledge & Its Corollary March 2003

Chapter III: Of Markets & Industries

Having established property rights in Chapter II, the nature of knowledge markets in which such rights are bought and sold will be examined.  There are three distinct markets: those for tacit, codified and tooled knowledge.  Tacit knowledge is embodied as know-how in natural persons and the market involves contracts for service and services, e.g., employment and consulting.  Codified knowledge is fixed in material form.  It is extrasomatic, i.e., it exists outside of a natural person.  Markets involve the purchase of specific types of matrices (the material forms in which knowledge is codified), e.g., books, paintings, recordings and licenses to use knowledge so embodied, e.g., patents.  Tooled knowledge is also extrasomatic but involves technology or ‘black box’ knowledge.  Markets involve the purchase of capital plant and equipment as well as consumer durables.

Given the economic epistemology established in Chapter I, it is suggested that specific industries exist corresponding to production, consumption and conservation of the distinct types of knowledge associated with each of the four primary faculties of knowing.  These include the Science, Spiritual, Arts and Sensate Industries.  The origins and histories of these knowledge industries will be explored.

Estimated Size: 50 pages

Sources: Tacit, Codified & Tooled Knowledge – The Animation of Nature (pending) April 2003; Thomas Kuhn's Pelican Brief November 2002; Funding the Fine Arts: An International Political Economic Assessment  2002; Copyright C.P.U. Creators, Proprietors & Users 2000; Towards An American Arts Industry 2000

Chapter IV: Of Nations, Policies & Possible Futures

The process of extending the economic epistemology of knowledge (Ch. I) first to domains & property (Ch. II) and then markets & industries (Ch. III) is continued to the level of the nation-state.  The origin and history of the nation-state is examined with a focus on the changing foundation of the wealth of nations.  It will be demonstrated that today it is knowledge in the form of physical, organizational and design technology that defines the wealth of nations.  While the foundation of the wealth of nations has changed through time it will be demonstrated that the competitiveness of nations has not changed from the times of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War in the 6th century B.C.E.  At the pinnacle of the social food chain, the nation-state possesses an internal monopoly of coercive power with which it competes against other nation states.

Natural persons live in different nation-states defined by differing constitutions, culture, history, language, law and religion.  These factors collectively focus the knowing of a natural person in distinct directions with differing intensity.  It is such differences in national ways of ‘knowing’ that forms the foundation for the competitiveness of nations in a global knowledge-based economy.

Estimated Size: 50 pages

Sources: The Future of Genomic IPRs (March 2003); The Competitiveness of Nations: The Past Present Future  April 2002; Neo Physiocracy April 2002; The Competitiveness of Nations - Some Assembled Thoughts 1992; Christianity, Censorship and Copyright in English-speaking Cultures 1992;  The Hard Facts: Perspectives of Cultural Economics 1990

 

The Competitiveness of Nations

in a Global Knowledge-Based Economy

April 2003

WIP Page