Economics as a Moral Science

M. R. Griffiths and J. R. Lucas
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M. R. Griffiths: British Institute of Florence
J. R. Lucas: Merton College

Chapter 2 in Value Economics, 2016, pp 15-36 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to reaffirm economics as a moral science, which, in combination with the mathematical disciplines of statistical analysis and econometric modelling, analyses economic activity in a way which takes account of consumer preferences, rational decision theory, and the inherent variability and indeterminacy of human behaviour. It considers the moral dimension of economics in the Kantian sense that we should act in a way that treats people never merely as a means, but always also as ends in themselves, and looks at the relationship between the moral and the natural sciences, believing that the two can “bed down” together in the quest for verifiable truth and justice in human affairs. It also looks at the human dimension of economics in terms of Adam Smith’s concepts of sympathy and virtue discussed in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but always in the light of the principles of uncertainty and unpredictability contained in Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and Gödel’s “Incompleteness Theorem”.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Moral Dimension; Moral Science; Classical Economic; Human Affair (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-54187-1_2

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DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-54187-1_2

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