Professor, PhD in Philosophy of culture
Vizja university in Warsaw
Okopowa 59, 01-043, Warszawa
slomski@vizja.pl
AMBROZY, MARIÁN; HVIZDOVÁ, EVA. SELECTED PROBLEMS OF KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOSOPHY.
NOVA SCIENCE PUBLIS-HERS, INC., 2025. ISBN 979-8-89530-883-7.
BOOK REVIEW
The monograph Selected Problems of Knowledge Society in the Light of Philosophy by Marián Ambrozy and Eva Hvizdová represents an out-standing interdisciplinary contribution to contemporary scholarship on the knowledge society. Although firmly rooted in philosophical reflection, the book offers a conceptually rigorous and highly original contribution to economic thought, particularly in the fields of the knowledge economy, political economy, and development economics. The authors convincingly demonstrate that knowledge is not merely an epistemic category but a central economic resource shaping growth, innovation, competitiveness, and the long-term sustainability of modern socio-economic systems.
From an economic perspective, the principal strength of the monograph lies in its successful critique of reductionist approaches that dominate much of the existing literature on the knowledge economy. Standard economic analyses often reduce knowledge to measurable indicators such as human capital, productivity, or technological output. Ambrozy and Hvizdová go beyond such limitations by showing that the economic ef-fectiveness of knowledge depends fundamentally on its axiological, cultu-ral, and institutional foundations. Knowledge is thus presented as a quali-tative resource whose economic value cannot be fully understood without reference to the normative frameworks, educational structures, and social institutions that enable its creation, transmission, and application.
The authors offer a compelling account of how contemporary econo-mies increasingly compete not through traditional factors of production, but through their capacity to generate, evaluate, and apply knowledge. In this respect, the monograph provides a strong theoretical grounding for key assumptions of innovation economics, institutional economics, and endogenous growth theory, while simultaneously deepening and refining them at the conceptual level. Particularly noteworthy is the authors’ tre-atment of education as a long-term economic investment rather than me-rely a public service sector. Education is rightly identified as the core infrastructure of the knowledge economy, determining not only skill forma-tion but also societal adaptability in the face of technological and structu-ral change.
From the standpoint of political economy, the book makes a significant contribution to debates on development strategies and public policy. Ambrozy and Hvizdová argue persuasively that economic strategies focused exclusively on short-term market efficiency risk undermining the very foundations of knowledge creation. Sustainable economic development, they maintain, requires deliberate public policies that support research, education, and knowledge transfer. In this sense, the monograph offers an important corrective to market-centric views of the knowledge economy, emphasizing the indispensable role of stable institutions, normative cohe-rence, and long-term investment in intellectual capital.
The global scope of the analysis further enhances the economic rele-vance of the work. Rather than limiting their discussion to a single natio-nal context, the authors situate the knowledge society within a broader international and comparative framework. This approach significantly increases the applicability of their arguments to both developed economies and countries seeking development pathways in a highly competitive global environment. The inclusion of responses from distinguished scho-lars adds a dialogical dimension to the book and enriches its analytical depth, making it more than a purely theoretical exercise.
Methodologically, the monograph is characterized by conceptual clarity, theoretical discipline, and a well-balanced integration of philosophical and economic reasoning. The authors successfully avoid both excessive abstraction and narrow instrumentalism, offering instead a coherent fra-mework that connects theory with meaningful economic implications. As a result, the book is of particular value not only to philosophers and economists, but also to policy analysts and researchers concerned with inno-vation, development, and public governance.
In conclusion, Selected Problems of Knowledge Society in the Light of Philosophy is a scholarly work of high academic quality that offers a profound and original account of the economic significance of knowledge in contemporary societies. Its interdisciplinary scope, solid theoretical foundations, and clearly articulated implications for economic policy make it an important reference point for future research on the knowledge economy. The monograph fully deserves broad academic recognition and can be regarded as one of the more valuable recent contributions to the study of the economic foundations of the knowledge society.