UTILITARIANISM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: CAN THEY MEET EACH OTHER?

João Pedro Garcia Araujo () and Gustavo Inácio de Moraes ()
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João Pedro Garcia Araujo: Universidade Veiga de Almeida
Gustavo Inácio de Moraes: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul

Revista de Economia Mackenzie (REM), 2016, vol. 13, issue 1, 187-208

Abstract: This paper aims to discuss utilitarianism capability to lead to sustainable development, considering the relationship between utilitarian principles and neoclassical economic theory, and the solutions presented by the latter to the environmental problems. Taking the fields of History and Economic Theory as a baseline, our analysis points out how neoclassical school was influenced by utilitarianism and which solutions were offered by this school to the environmental problems. Considering the concept of sustainable development from the report Our Common Future and the idea of a multidimensional sustainability, with economic, social and environmental dimensions, we concluded that neoclassical tools cannot offer actually sustainable solutions due to an incompatibility between their utilitarian epistemological foundations and the assumptions of sustainability.

Keywords: Neoclassical Economic Theory; Sustainability; Utilitarianism. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aft:journl:v:13:1:2016:jul:p:187-208

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