ABSTRACT
Massimo De Angelis's work on The Beginning of History lodges economics in the commons. His communal call for freedom challenges us to overcome the subordination of our lives under the value practices of market capitalism. Individual freedom and self-awareness of being part of a whole implies individuals are and recognize themselves to be social individuals, members of a community. In the context of Integral Economy, de Angelis's philosophy provides the theoretical basis for regrounding economics in community. Further, by reversing the neoclassical conception of the economy as independent from society, he builds on the 20th-century economic anthropologist Karl Polanyi, who maintained that the economy is embedded in society. De Angelis's perspective is reinforced, by a brief introduction to African Economic Humanism. The economics of the commons, as introduced by De Angelis, and its particular expression in the form of Bhengus African Economic Humanism are aspiring to achieve sustainable development.
