Mutual Understanding, The State of Attention, and the Ground for Interaction in Economic Systems

Lawrence A. Berger

Business Ethics Quarterly, 1996, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-25

Abstract: Neoclassical economic theory assumes that people pursue utility maximization within an objective framework, evident to all, that serves as the basis for the interaction. Agents are assumed to be detached observers who see the situation as it is in objective reality. It is argued in this article that there is no objective ground for interaction that exists apart from the understanding of economic agents. Agents have orientations that change over time depending on the way that the situation is currently understood. Depth of understanding and the extent of common ground depend on the quality of attention and the will to openness and honesty. Efforts to maintain connections with others make possible mutual understanding and visions of the common good that enable the coordinated pursuit of desired states of the world. Thus the understanding is … itself the lawgiver of nature. Save through it, nature, that is, synthetic unity of the manifold of appearances according to rules, would not exist at all….Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

Date: 1996
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