Value in Ethics and Economics

Value in Ethics and Economics PDF Author: Elizabeth Anderson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674931909
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Elizabeth Anderson offers a new theory of value and rationality that rejects cost-benefit analysis in our social lives and in our ethical theories. This account of the plurality of values thus offers a new approach, beyond welfare economics and traditional theories of justice, for assessing the ethical limitations of the market. In this light, Anderson discusses several contemporary controversies involving the proper scope of the market, including commercial surrogate motherhood, privatization of public services, and the application of cost-benefit analysis to issues of environmental protection. Table of Contents: Preface 1. A Pluralist Theory of Value A Rational Attitude Theory of Value Ideals and Self-Assessment How Goods Differ in Kind (I): Different Modes of Valuation How Goods Differ in Kind (II): Social Relations of Realization 2. An Expressive Theory of Rational Action Value and Rational Action The Framing of Decisions The Extrinsic Value of States of Affairs Consequentialism Practical Reason and the Unity of the Self 3. Pluralism and Incommensurable Goods The Advantages of Consequentialism A Pragmatic Theory of Comparative Value Judgments Incommensurable Goods Rational Choice among Incommensurable Goods 4. Self-Understanding, the Hierarchy of Values, and Moral Constraints The Test of Self-Understanding The Hierarchy of Values Agent-Centered Restrictions Hybrid Consequentialism A Self-Effacing Theory of Practical Reason? 5. Criticism, Justification, and Common Sense A Pragmatic Account of Objectivity The Thick Conceptual Structure of the Space of Reasons How Common Sense Can Be Self-Critical Why We Should Ignore Skeptical Challenges to Common Sense 6. Monistic Theories of Value Monism Moore's Aesthetic Monism Hedonism Rational Desire Theory 7. The Ethical Limitations of the Market Pluralism, Freedom, and Liberal Politics The Ideals and Social Relations of the Modern Market Civil Society and the Market Personal Relations and the Market Political Goods and the Market The Limitations of Market Ideologies 8. Is Women's Labor a Commodity? The Case of Commercial Surrogate Motherhood Children as Commodities Women's Labor as a Commodity Contract Pregnancy and the Status of Women Contract Pregnancy, Freedom, and the Law 9. Cost-Benefit Analysis, Safety, and Environmental Quality Cost-Benefit Analysis as a Form of Commodification Autonomy, Labor Markets, and the Value of Life Citizens, Consumers, and the Value of the Environment Toward Democratic Alternatives to Cost-Benefit Analysis Conclusion Notes References Index Reviews of this book: Anderson/auhtor is anxious to combat what she sees as a tendency for commercial values to invade areas of human life where they do not belong...A useful contribution to debate about the proper scope of the market. "Not everything is a commodity, insists Anderson, and her brief should shake up social science technocrats." DD--Philadelphia Inquirer "The book is rich in both argument and application." DD--Alan Hamlin, Times Higher Education Supplement "In this rich and insightful book Elizabeth Anderson develops an original account of value and rational action and then employs this account to address the pragmatic political question of what the proper range of the market should be. Anderson's principal targets are consequentialism, monism and the crude 'economistic' reasoning which underpins much contemporary social policy...This is an important book...For anyone interested in political philosophy this is essential reading." DD--A. J. Walsh, Australasian Journal of Philosophy --Hugo Dixon, Financial Times [UK] Reviews of this book: Not everything is a commodity, insists Anderson, and her brief should shake up social science technocrats. --Philadelphia Inquirer Reviews of this book: The book is rich in both argument and application. --Alan Hamlin, Times Higher Education Supplement Reviews of this book: In this rich and insightful book Elizabeth Anderson develops an original account of value and rational action and then employs this account to address the pragmatic political question of what the proper range of the market should be. Anderson's principal targets are consequentialism, monism and the crude 'economistic' reasoning which underpins much contemporary social policy...This is an important book...For anyone interested in political philosophy this is essential reading. --A. J. Walsh, Australasian Journal of Philosophy

Value in Ethics and Economics

Value in Ethics and Economics PDF Author: Elizabeth Anderson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674931909
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Get Book

Book Description
Elizabeth Anderson offers a new theory of value and rationality that rejects cost-benefit analysis in our social lives and in our ethical theories. This account of the plurality of values thus offers a new approach, beyond welfare economics and traditional theories of justice, for assessing the ethical limitations of the market. In this light, Anderson discusses several contemporary controversies involving the proper scope of the market, including commercial surrogate motherhood, privatization of public services, and the application of cost-benefit analysis to issues of environmental protection. Table of Contents: Preface 1. A Pluralist Theory of Value A Rational Attitude Theory of Value Ideals and Self-Assessment How Goods Differ in Kind (I): Different Modes of Valuation How Goods Differ in Kind (II): Social Relations of Realization 2. An Expressive Theory of Rational Action Value and Rational Action The Framing of Decisions The Extrinsic Value of States of Affairs Consequentialism Practical Reason and the Unity of the Self 3. Pluralism and Incommensurable Goods The Advantages of Consequentialism A Pragmatic Theory of Comparative Value Judgments Incommensurable Goods Rational Choice among Incommensurable Goods 4. Self-Understanding, the Hierarchy of Values, and Moral Constraints The Test of Self-Understanding The Hierarchy of Values Agent-Centered Restrictions Hybrid Consequentialism A Self-Effacing Theory of Practical Reason? 5. Criticism, Justification, and Common Sense A Pragmatic Account of Objectivity The Thick Conceptual Structure of the Space of Reasons How Common Sense Can Be Self-Critical Why We Should Ignore Skeptical Challenges to Common Sense 6. Monistic Theories of Value Monism Moore's Aesthetic Monism Hedonism Rational Desire Theory 7. The Ethical Limitations of the Market Pluralism, Freedom, and Liberal Politics The Ideals and Social Relations of the Modern Market Civil Society and the Market Personal Relations and the Market Political Goods and the Market The Limitations of Market Ideologies 8. Is Women's Labor a Commodity? The Case of Commercial Surrogate Motherhood Children as Commodities Women's Labor as a Commodity Contract Pregnancy and the Status of Women Contract Pregnancy, Freedom, and the Law 9. Cost-Benefit Analysis, Safety, and Environmental Quality Cost-Benefit Analysis as a Form of Commodification Autonomy, Labor Markets, and the Value of Life Citizens, Consumers, and the Value of the Environment Toward Democratic Alternatives to Cost-Benefit Analysis Conclusion Notes References Index Reviews of this book: Anderson/auhtor is anxious to combat what she sees as a tendency for commercial values to invade areas of human life where they do not belong...A useful contribution to debate about the proper scope of the market. "Not everything is a commodity, insists Anderson, and her brief should shake up social science technocrats." DD--Philadelphia Inquirer "The book is rich in both argument and application." DD--Alan Hamlin, Times Higher Education Supplement "In this rich and insightful book Elizabeth Anderson develops an original account of value and rational action and then employs this account to address the pragmatic political question of what the proper range of the market should be. Anderson's principal targets are consequentialism, monism and the crude 'economistic' reasoning which underpins much contemporary social policy...This is an important book...For anyone interested in political philosophy this is essential reading." DD--A. J. Walsh, Australasian Journal of Philosophy --Hugo Dixon, Financial Times [UK] Reviews of this book: Not everything is a commodity, insists Anderson, and her brief should shake up social science technocrats. --Philadelphia Inquirer Reviews of this book: The book is rich in both argument and application. --Alan Hamlin, Times Higher Education Supplement Reviews of this book: In this rich and insightful book Elizabeth Anderson develops an original account of value and rational action and then employs this account to address the pragmatic political question of what the proper range of the market should be. Anderson's principal targets are consequentialism, monism and the crude 'economistic' reasoning which underpins much contemporary social policy...This is an important book...For anyone interested in political philosophy this is essential reading. --A. J. Walsh, Australasian Journal of Philosophy

The Economics of Ethics and the Ethics of Economics

The Economics of Ethics and the Ethics of Economics PDF Author: Geoffrey Brennan
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1849801908
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Economics and ethics are succumbing to the pull of disciplinary specialisation at their own peril. This volume represents a necessary and most welcome reminder of some ways in which the two are intertwined. How do economic preferences relate to ethical values? What are the motivational underpinnings on which we should base a theory of choice? What explains compliance with rules, and with tax legislation in particular? Any economist or political philosopher interested in these questions must read this book. Peter Dietsch, Université de Montréal, Canada Do market prices reflect values? What is the relation between social norms and economic incentives? Do economic agents respond to ethical arguments? By probing the boundaries between positive and normative theorizing and by bridging ethics, economics, and political science, this book is able to address a fascinating set of questions. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in normative issues in public policy to academics and practitioners alike. Fabienne Peter, University of Warwick, UK This book makes a rational and eloquent case for the closer integration of ethics and economics. It expands upon themes concerned with esteem, self-esteem, emotional bonding between agents, expressive concerns, and moral requirements. Economists have long assumed that value and price are synonymous and interchangeable. The authors show how disregarding this false assumption and adopting an interdisciplinary approach could improve the economics profession by distinguishing economic values from ethical values. Replete with discussions that will challenge conventional economics, this book offers a corrective argument against the rigid separation of agents motivation and the purely normative aspects of economic analysis. The various contributions explore the different dimensions at the frontier between the rational and the moral in political economy, ethics and philosophy. Containing a variety of cross-border analyses, this innovative book will be a must-read for economists, political scientists and philosophers. It will also be an invaluable resource for students in the fields of economics and philosophy.

Value Economics

Value Economics PDF Author: M. R. Griffiths
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137541873
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The last financial crisis revealed a gap between business practice and ethics. In Value Economics, Griffiths and Lucas examine some of the reasons for this ethical gap and discuss the resulting loss of confidence in the financial system. One of the reasons has been hazy or inadequate thinking about how we value economic enterprises. With the close link between the creation of value and business ethics in mind, this book proposes that economic value should become the basic metric for evaluating performance in the creation of value, and for establishing fair and reasonable standards for executive compensation. Value Economics considers a number of rational philosophical principles for business management, on which practical codes of business ethics can be based. As the creation of value has moral implications for economic justice, the book reaffirms the argument for economics as a moral science, and seeks, within the context of proposed changes in the regulation and control of financial services, to answer the following question: will things really change after the last financial crisis?

Economics as Applied Ethics

Economics as Applied Ethics PDF Author: Wilfred Beckerman
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319503197
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
This important textbook has been revised and updated to continue its focus on the link between ethics and economic policy analysis, whilst ensuring that perspectives addressing the moral limits of the market, latest behavioural economics literature, and the changes in inequality over the years are included. Basic philosophical concepts are systematically described, followed by conventional welfare economic theory and policy, and applications to some topical economic problems such as income distribution and sustainable development.

Beyond Naïveté

Beyond Naïveté PDF Author: Rohnn B. Sanderson
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761859586
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This book discusses theories in economics and ethics to help the reader understand all points of view regarding the crossroads between economic systems and individual and social values. Easily accessible to non-specialists, the book also provides numerous insights for speciali...

The Morality of Economic Behaviour

The Morality of Economic Behaviour PDF Author: Vangelis Chiotis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135116886X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
The links between self-interest and morality have been examined in moral philosophy since Plato. Economics is a mostly value-free discipline, having lost its original ethical dimension as described by Adam Smith. Examining moral philosophy through the framework provided by economics offers new insights into both disciplines and the discussion on the origins and nature of morality. The Morality of Economic Behaviour: Economics as Ethics argues that moral behaviour does not need to be exogenously encouraged or enforced because morality is a side effect of interactions between self-interested agents. The argument relies on two important parameters: behaviour in a social environment and the effects of intertemporal choice on rational behaviour. Considering social structures and repeated interactions on rational maximisation allows an argument for the morality of economic behaviour. Amoral agents interacting within society can reach moral outcomes. Thus, economics becomes a synthesis of moral and rational choice theory bypassing the problems of ethics in economic behaviour whilst promoting moral behaviour and ethical outcomes. This approach sheds new light on practical issues such as economic policy, business ethics and social responsibility. This book is of interest primarily to students of politics, economics and philosophy but will also appeal to anyone who is interested in morality and ethics, and their relationship with self-interest.

Economics and Ethics

Economics and Ethics PDF Author: J. Philip Wogaman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780334003663
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
The impression is often given by politicians and others that economic life can be reduced to a series of problems that are experienced in common by all of us and which can be 'solved' if only we bend our common will and creative intelligence to the task. However, such an approach, which ignores value questions in the name of pure pragmatism, is naive in the extreme. A great deal depends on how problems are defined in terms of value. For solutions to problems for one set of people (even though they may be the majority) create a whole new set of problems for another set of people (who while they may be a minority, may be a large minority and should not be ignored). At the very least, a question of priorities is raised, in a context of conflicting interests, and this calls for ethical judgments. This book explores the nature of such ethical judgments, who makes them, and on what values they are based. After looking at economic problems and human values and the way in which they are made, Professor Wogaman asks whether there is a theological basis for social priorities. He then considers contemporary economic realities in general before focussing on more specific issues like equity and security, employment and education opportunity, conservation and the need for a new world order, before inexorably forcing home his final conclusions: 'Saying Yes Means Saying No'.

The End of Value-Free Economics

The End of Value-Free Economics PDF Author: Hilary Putnam
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136576800
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
This book brings together key players in the current debate on positive and normative science and philosophy and value judgements in economics. Both editors have engaged in these debates throughout their careers from its early foundations; Putnam as a doctorial student of Hans Reichenbach at UCLA and Walsh a junior member of Lord Robbins’s department at the London School of Economics, both in the early 1950s. This book collects recent contributions from Martha Nussbaum, Amartya Sen and Partha Dasgupta, as well as a new chapter from the editors.

Ethics in Economics, Business, and Economic Policy

Ethics in Economics, Business, and Economic Policy PDF Author: Peter Koslowski
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642774342
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
This book presents an integration of the analysis of symbo- lic, ethical, and cultural meaning into the theory of econo- mic action. It demontrates that the scope of economics is widened by the inclusion of the cultural and ethical determinants of economic action and by bringing the ethical and cultural factors back into economics and management science. The book's contribution to business ethics and economic ethics lies in its distinctly continental European background which is often overlooked in current discussions of economic theory. The papers in this volume point to a mutual interpenetration of economics and ethics in a new synthesis of "ethical economy".

The Future of Value Inquiry

The Future of Value Inquiry PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004494510
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This book explores the nature of values, and the status of value studies, at the turn of the millennium. The contributors, nineteen philosophers from fourteen countries, introduce and defend an enriching variety of views regarding the present state and future prospects of value inquiry.