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In these times of crisis and globalisation, the pressure which the economic system exerts on people is such that the liberal aim, that happiness comes with the satisfaction of our material needs, raises doubts even about our identities. Has the time not come for us to question once again the foundations of the ideological and technological progress which the West has led for three centuries in the name of rationality? Has Descartes’ method not now reached its limits and should we not reconsider the ‘reality checks’ suggested by Aristotle? This is what Brother Samuel is passionately attempting to do. He is an iconoclastic philosopher and company consultant who deplores the fact that today man is increasingly becoming the servant of the system rather than its beneficiary.