Louis-Joseph Lebret

Who is Louis-Joseph Lebret?

Louis-Joseph Lebret was a French Dominican social scientist and philosopher who sought to "put the economy at the service of man" and advanced the notion of the "human economy". He was also responsible for introducing concern for development to the Catholic Church. He was aware of the challenges posed to the Church and the Western by underdevelopment and pushed the argument for an increased solidarity with poor countries. He was involved with the drafting the documents Gaudium et Spes, an influential voice in the crafting of Populorum Progressio and a founder of the Économie et Humanisme movement.

Goulet singles out Lebret as an early voice in defense of ethically-based development and reports his definition of development as

Goulet argues that Lebret's use of the normative expressions - more or less human should be understood in terms of Lebret's distinction between to have more and to be more.

Goulet argues that Lebret left legacy with five lessons for the increasingly globalised world:

that development decision-makers must study the expressed needs of populations in whose benefit they profess to work

the need to link micro issues to macro questions