In search of sustainable values

Ernest Partridge

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2003, vol. 6, issue 1, 25-41

Abstract: Fundamental to policies of sustainable development is the assumption that values will not depreciate through time. This assumption is inconsistent with the economic approach to policy-making. Economic analysis, by interpreting social values in terms of money, necessarily discounts values in the future. Accordingly, if the interests of future generations are to be served, moral and economic values must be shown to be essentially incommensurable, and moral values must predominate in policy analyses. The distinction between economic and moral values is enumerated with twelve contrasting characteristics, five of which are given careful elaboration: a) "economic man" (a utility maximiser) vs. the moral agent (rule-oriented evaluator); b) the marketplace vs. the community; c) ecocentric vs. "spectator" point of view; d) non-moral values vs. moral values; and e) time preference (discounting) vs. time neutrality.

Keywords: discounting; future generations; moral agency; posterity; sustainability; sustainable development. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=4224 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijsusd:v:6:y:2003:i:1:p:25-41

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Sustainable Development from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().