Books: Chomsky and Schumacher

This is the book I got today from online shopping in homeshop18.com. This site is beating flipkart in terms of price, packaging; and delivery is equally fast. MRP is 550 but I got it for 330. It delivered in exactly 1 week after order... through Blue Dart courier. So much about the ordering process..that's because I'm yet to start reading.

This is what I wrote in a discussion group in facebook:

Just a suggestion. I have been reading E.F Schumacher's 'Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered' and I feel that if you can get the time, it will be nice to study the book together. The book costs Rs. 239. Each of the 19 chapters is a separate essay. Economic thinker EF Schumacher was a dedicated atheist who converted to Christianity in 1971. Two years later, Small is Beautiful was published. The book has been translated to several languages and Random House published the book again in 2011, latest as far as I know. The Guardian recently discussed on the book title ‘small is beautiful’ which Schumacher reluctantly put for his book and the danger of reducing it into a meaningless phrase.

Here are 2 quotes from the book

‘What is at fault is not specialization, but the lack of depth with which the subjects are usually presented, and the absence of metaphysical awareness. The sciences are being taught without any awareness of the presuppositions of science, of the meaning and significance of scientific laws, and of the place occupied by the natural sciences within the whole cosmos of human thought. The result is that the presuppositions of science are normally mistaken for its findings’. (Chapter 6: The greatest resource – Education)

‘Development does not start with goods; it starts with people and their education, organization, and discipline. Without these three, all resources remain latent, untapped, potential’. (Chapter 11: Development)