Ethics and Æsthetics in Societal Dynamics

Emil Dinga ()
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Emil Dinga: Romanian Academy, Financial and Monetary Research Center; Academy of Romanian Scientists

Chapter Chapter 7 in The Economics of Social Justice and Societal Evolution, 2026, pp 447-518 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter assumes a relatively new topic to be examined, namely the relationship between ethics and æsthetics at the societal level. If the concept of ethics is familiar, that of societal æsthetics is not so, and, even less, the rapport between ethics and æsthetics from the perspective of the societal system. Firstly, the characterization of the individual’s state is established, based on three feelings: satisfaction, joy, and happiness, and, from here, the three categories of utility are introduced: substantive, evidential, and symbolic. Further, the concept of ethics, related to the concept of morals, is developed, including methodological remarks on the construction of a theory of ethics based on two categories of principles: institutive and regulatory, respectively. Next, the concept of ethical truth is introduced and discussed, including its (factual) testability. The problem of the significance which ethics provide to human behaviour is approached in its general meaning, as well as the relationships between ethics and economy (where a difference appears between ex ante ethics and ex post ethics). The issue of the possibility of learning ethics is also examined. An important section in the chapter is dedicated to the relationship between ethics and bioeconomy, including the identification of the principles of bioeconomy/bioeconomics (both institutive and regulatory). Based on the findings related to ethics, the concept of morale is then examined from a logical perspective. The next section is about the (relatively unapproached in a scientific way) concept of societal æsthetics. In this context, the general concept of æsthetics is remembered, based on five theses, then the concept of socional—an artefact that describes the social/societal relations is introduced together with the logic of extracting it cognitively—is introduced. As in the case of ethics, the principles of getting the societal æsthetics are identified (both institutive and regulatory). The last part of the chapter is aimed at establishing the logical relationships between ethics and (societal) æsthetics, in the form of a binomial ethics–æsthetics, including the evolutionary perspective of such a binomial.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-24055-2_7

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