THE TEMPLETON ENTERPRISE AWARDS are granted annually to the best books and articles written by scholars under forty years of age in humane economics and culture. The awards intend to cultivate a new generation of rising scholars with the willingness to examine and explicate the crucial nexus that exists between economic prosperity and moral flourishing within model free societies. Among the largest in the United States, the top prizes are $50,000 for the winning book and $25,000 for the leading article.

2007 Templeton Enterprise Award Recipients

"Otteson makes the classical liberal conception of individual freedom and responsibility the basis for a fresh look at world poverty, environmental concern and other standard topics…He writes with the passion and style of a true believer."
-- Gordon Graham, Princeton Theological Seminary

Second-Place Book: Dr. Samuel Gregg, The Commercial Society: Foundations and Challenges in a Global Age
Guided by the thoughts of Alexis de Tocqueville, Samuel Gregg’s The Commercial Society identifies and explores the key foundational elements that must exist within a society for commercial order to take root and flourish. Gregg studies the challenges that have consistently impeded and occasionally undermined commercial order, including the persistence of "corporatist" values and political movements seeking to equalize social conditions.

"Everyone can learn something from this, especially those Europeans whose countries are mired in bureaucracy, stagnation, and what Tocqueville called 'soft despotism.'"
-- Mart Laar, Former Prime Minister of Estonia

First-Place Article: Mr. Brian Smith, "Adam Smith, the Concept of Leisure, and the Division of Labor, Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy
This essay explores two main issues. The first centers on the way Smith articulates the possible dangers inherent in his division of labor and reconstructs the way he tries to utilize some of the effects of specialized labor to curb these dangerous effects. The second involves Smith’s vision of human motivation, which is rooted in the human need for sympathy and recognition. It demonstrates that while for Smith commercial society unleashes a variety of unstable effects, this division of labor creates a situation in which properly cultivated politicians and men of letters can nevertheless restrain such a society’s worst tendencies.

Second-Place Article: Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riano, "Natural Law and Modern Economic Theory," Journal of Markets and Morality
This article defends and advances the importance of natural law for modern economic theory. In doing so, it presents the classical view of natural law as found in the work of Thomas Aquinas and addresses both its religious foundations as well as scientific evidence for its existence. Beyond offering a portrait and defense of natural law, this article discusses the specific contributions that natural law offers to modern economic theory in an attempt to imbue the latter with a more complete notion of humanity and existence

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