The Creative Prince of Capitalism and the Headless Horseman
The article is an extensive introduction to Joseph A. Schumpeter's thought on the process of creative destruction. This thought is in itself seen as the very expression of the creative destruction and linked to its historical, intellectual and personal conditions. Here Schumpeter's turbulent life, his passions and the specific form of his own economic thought, is analysed in the light of the process of creative destruction. The article discusses also Schumpeter's methodology, his intellectual influences, and his theories of innovation, politics and especially his image of passionate capitalism. The metaphor of creative destruction is compared with the metaphor of invisible hand and their corresponding images of capitalism is analysed. In the end the tragic source and aspect of Schumpeter's narrative on capitalism is exposed.