The Values of Economics: An Aristotelian Perspective (Economics as Social Theory)

257 Pages·2001·1.1 MB·English

by  Irene van Staveren

THE VALUES OF
ECONOMICS
Economics has often been accused of losing its connection to some of the
basic characteristics of human behaviour: commitment, emotion,
deliberation and the different forms of interaction through which human
actors in economic life provide for themselves and for others. With an aim
to bring caring back into economic theory, Irene van Staveren draws upon
the work of Aristotle and Amartya Sen’s notions of capability and
commitment to propose an alternative methodology to utilitarianism that
is not normative.
In his Ethics, Aristotle argued that human beings try to further a variety
of values by balancing them, stating that people try to find a middle road
between excess and deficiency The author develops and applies this idea
to the values of economics, arguing that in the economy freedom, justice
and care are also balanced to further ends with scarce means. Freedom is
furthered through market exchange, justice through a redistributive role
of the state, and care through mutual gifts of labour and sharing of resources
in the economy. This book argues that economics is, and has always been,
about human values, which guide, enable, constrain and change economic
behaviour.
The Values of Economics will appeal to advanced students and
professionals with an interest in economics, philosophy and gender studies.
Irene van Staveren is Lecturer in labour market economics of developing
countries at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. She won the Gunnar
Myrdal Prize 2000 for her dissertation Caring for Economics: An Aristotelian
Perspective, from which this book evolved.
ECONOMICS AS SOCIAL THEORY
Edited by Tony Lawson
University of Cambridge
Social theory is experiencing something of a revival within economics.
Critical analyses of the particular nature of the subject matter of social
studies and of the types of method, categories and modes of explanation
that can legitimately be endorsed for the scientific study of social objects
are reemerging. Economists are again addressing such issues as the
relationship between agency and structure, between the economy and the
rest of society, and between the enquirer and the object of enquiry. There is
a renewed interest in elaborating basic categories such as causation,
competition, culture, discrimination, evolution, money, need, order,
organisation, power, probability, process, rationality, technology, time, truth,
uncertainty, value and so on.
The objective for this series is to facilitate this revival further. In
contemporary economics, the label ‘theory’ has been appropriated by a
group that confines itself to largely asocial, ahistorical, mathematical
‘modelling’. Economics as Social Theory thus reclaims the ‘theory’ label,
offering a platform for alternative rigorous, but broader and more critical,
conceptions of theorising.
Other titles in this series include:
ECONOMICS AND LANGUAGE
Edited by Willie Henderson
RATIONALITY, INSTITUTIONS AND ECONOMIC
METHODOLOGY
Edited by Uskali Mäki, Bo Gustafsson and Christian Knudsen
NEW DIRECTIONS IN ECONOMIC
METHODOLOGY
Edited by Roger Backhouse
WHO PAYS FOR THE KIDS?
Nancy Folbre
RULES AND CHOICE IN ECONOMICS
Viktor Vanberg
BEYOND RHETORIC AND REALISM IN ECONOMICS
Thomas A.Boylan and Paschal F.O’Gorman
FEMINISM, OBJECTIVITY AND ECONOMICS
Julie A.Nelson
ECONOMIC EVOLUTION
Jack J.Vromen
ECONOMICS AND REALITY
Tony Lawson
THE MARKET
John O’Neill
ECONOMICS AND UTOPIA
Geoff Hodgson
CRITICAL REALISM IN ECONOMICS
Edited by Steve Fleetwood
THE NEW ECONOMIC CRITICISM
Edited by Martha Woodmansee and Mark Osteen
WHAT DO ECONOMISTS KNOW?
Edited by Robert F.Garnett, Jr
POSTMODERNISM, ECONOMICS AND KNOWLEDGE
Edited by Stephen Cullenberg, Jack Amariglio and David F.Ruccio
THE VALUES OF ECONOMICS
An Aristotelian perspective
Irene van Staveren
HOW ECONOMICS FORGOT HISTORY
The problem of historical specificity in social science
Geoffrey M.Hodgson

T H E VA L U E S O F
E C O N O M I C S
An Aristotelian perspective
Irene van Staveren
London and New York
First published 2001
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2001 Irene van Staveren
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Staveren, Irene van.
The values of economics: an Aristotelian perspective/Irene van
Staveren
p. cm.—(Economics as social theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Economics—Philosophy. 2. Economics—Moral and ethical aspects.
3. Aristotle. I. Title. II. Series.
HB72 .S674 2001
330'.01–dc21 00–068430
ISBN (Hbk) 0-415-24182-0
ISBN (Pbk) 0-415-24183-9
ISBN 0-203-12239-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-16342-7 (Adobe eReader Format)
CONTENTS
List of figures viii
List of tables ix
Preface x
1 The missing ethical capabilities of rational economic
man 1
2 Paradoxes of value 25
3 Liberté, égalité, fraternité 58
4 Beyond the highway of modernist economics 88
5 Hypotheses on economic role combination 108
6 Toward an Aristotelian economics 145
7 Institutional mediation between value domains 174
8 Conclusion 202
Notes 209
Bibliography 221
Index 238
vii
FIGURES
2.1 The relations between economic value domains 48
2.2 Some characteristics of economic value domains 57
6.1 The relationship between capabilities and virtues within
an economic value domain 154
6.2 Excess and deficiency in value domains 161
7.1 The mediating role of institutions within each value
domain 180
viii
TABLES
4.1 Dualistic reductionism in neoclassical economics 90
4.2 The classes and the virtues 95
5.1 Time-use in paid and unpaid work for women as a
percentage of men 113
6.1 Externalities spilling over from each value domain 164
ix