Meals matter : a radical economics through gastronomy / Michael Symons.

"In Gastronomics, Michael Symons provides an innovative history of the intersection of food history, philosophy and economics. Modern economic thought, Symons argues, is driven by a money-centric focus that benefits the interests of the 'corporate individual'--entities without finite appetites, motivated by an endless quest for financial growth--to the detriment of actual, corporeal individuals. Symons understands this shift as a modern devaluation of community and loss of a way of life that values food sharing, enjoyment and satiety. Covering a wide variety of thinkers--Jean Brillat-Savarin and Epicurus, Enlightenment philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, economic theorists Jean-Baptiste Say and Stanley Jevons, and neoliberals--Symons reads and critiques both popular and lesser-understood intellectuals to shed light into the 'economics of appetite' and the opposing 'economics of greed.' He calls for individuals to reject the self-interest of money pleasure and, through renewed attention to communal values of family, meal-sharing, food activism, and the defense of liberalism, advocates a return to a community-based philosophy of 'table pleasure.'"-- Provided by publisher.