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    Systems of Survival

    A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics

    Author Jane Jacobs
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    Paperback
    $17.00 US
    Knopf | Vintage
    On sale Jan 13, 1994 | 256 Pages | 9780679748168
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    In her first book in a decade, Jacobs offers a brilliant and original study of the ethical basis of public life. Written in the form of a platonic dialogue, Systems of Survival argues that human behavior is governed by two distinct ethical systems. The first is a guardian syndrome, which arises from behavior we share with other animals--foraging for food and protecting our territories. The second syndrome is a commercial syndrome, arising from trade and the production of goods, an endeavor unique to human beings. Conflicts occur, according to Jacobs, when the precepts appropriate to the guardian syndrome are imposed on the commercial syndrome, and vice versa.

    Contents

    1. Armbruster's Summons
    2. A Pair of Contradictions
    3. Kate on the Commercial Syndrome
    4. Why Two Syndromes?
    5. Jasper and Kate on the Guardian Syndrome
    6. Trading, Taking, and Monstrous Hybrids
    7. Anomalies
    8. Casts of Mind
    9. Armbruster on Systemic Moral Corruption
    10. Syndrome-Friendly Inventions
    11. Hortense on Castes and Flexibility
    12. Pitfalls of the Methods
    13. Hortense's Defense of Moral Flexibility
    14. Plans and Champagne
    Appendix: The Commercial and Guardian Moral Syndromes
    • FINALIST | 1993
      Governor General's Literary Award - Nonfiction
    Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) was a writer who for more than forty years championed innovative, community-based approaches to urban planning. Her 1961 treatise The Death and Life of Great American Cities became perhaps the most influential text about the inner workings and failings of cities, inspiring generations of planners and activists. View titles by Jane Jacobs
    “Altogether magnificent . . . Probably no single thinker has done more in the last fifty years to transform our ideas about the nature of urban life.” —Chicago Tribune

    “[With] piercing analysis, crystalline prose and [a] finely-honed sense of morality, Jacobs covers an amazing amount of ground.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

    “Superb . . . Cobbling together a little urban anthropology, a little economic history, and a vast store of highly nuanced personal observations . . . Jacobs is an indispensable provocateur.” —Village Voice Literary Supplement

    About

    In her first book in a decade, Jacobs offers a brilliant and original study of the ethical basis of public life. Written in the form of a platonic dialogue, Systems of Survival argues that human behavior is governed by two distinct ethical systems. The first is a guardian syndrome, which arises from behavior we share with other animals--foraging for food and protecting our territories. The second syndrome is a commercial syndrome, arising from trade and the production of goods, an endeavor unique to human beings. Conflicts occur, according to Jacobs, when the precepts appropriate to the guardian syndrome are imposed on the commercial syndrome, and vice versa.

    Contents

    1. Armbruster's Summons
    2. A Pair of Contradictions
    3. Kate on the Commercial Syndrome
    4. Why Two Syndromes?
    5. Jasper and Kate on the Guardian Syndrome
    6. Trading, Taking, and Monstrous Hybrids
    7. Anomalies
    8. Casts of Mind
    9. Armbruster on Systemic Moral Corruption
    10. Syndrome-Friendly Inventions
    11. Hortense on Castes and Flexibility
    12. Pitfalls of the Methods
    13. Hortense's Defense of Moral Flexibility
    14. Plans and Champagne
    Appendix: The Commercial and Guardian Moral Syndromes

    Awards

    • FINALIST | 1993
      Governor General's Literary Award - Nonfiction

    Author

    Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) was a writer who for more than forty years championed innovative, community-based approaches to urban planning. Her 1961 treatise The Death and Life of Great American Cities became perhaps the most influential text about the inner workings and failings of cities, inspiring generations of planners and activists. View titles by Jane Jacobs

    Praise

    “Altogether magnificent . . . Probably no single thinker has done more in the last fifty years to transform our ideas about the nature of urban life.” —Chicago Tribune

    “[With] piercing analysis, crystalline prose and [a] finely-honed sense of morality, Jacobs covers an amazing amount of ground.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

    “Superb . . . Cobbling together a little urban anthropology, a little economic history, and a vast store of highly nuanced personal observations . . . Jacobs is an indispensable provocateur.” —Village Voice Literary Supplement

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