IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rei/ecoins/v9y2007i16p63-87.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Los fundamentos morales de la economía: una relectura del problema de Adam Smith

Author

Listed:
  • José Atilano Pena López

    (Universidad de A Coruña)

  • José Manuel Sánchez Santos

    (Universidad de A Coruña)

Abstract

This paper offers a reinterpretation of “Adam Smith’s problem” and reconsiders the relation between ethics and economics. It makes a critical revision of the attempts that seek to solve this problem, proposes an alternative framework constructed on the Smithian concepts of sympathy and the impartial spectator, and shows that morality understood as an extension of sympathy relations, constitutes a precondition for the market existence. The analysis clarifies that morality is the base of the economic system and, at the same time, the economic system limits morality.

Suggested Citation

  • José Atilano Pena López & José Manuel Sánchez Santos, 2007. "Los fundamentos morales de la economía: una relectura del problema de Adam Smith," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 9(16), pages 63-87, January-J.
    • Handle: RePEc:rei:ecoins:v:9:y:2007:i:16:p:63-87
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.uexternado.edu.co/facecono/ecoinstitucional/workingpapers/jpena16.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sally, David, 2001. "On sympathy and games," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 1-30, January.
    2. David Sally, 2002. "Two Economic Applications of Sympathy," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 455-487, October.
    3. Elias L. Khalil, 2001. "Adam Smith and Three Theories of Altruism," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 67(4), pages 421-435.
    4. repec:bla:econom:v:48:y:1981:i:189:p:1-15 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Khalil, Elias L., 1990. "Beyond Self-Interest and Altruism: A Reconstruction of Adam Smith's Theory of Human Conduct," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 255-273, October.
    6. Cory, Gerald Jr., 2006. "A behavioral model of the dual motive approach to behavioral economics and social exchange," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 592-612, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khalil, Elias L., 2017. "Socialized view of man vs. rational choice theory: What does smith’s sympathy have to say?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 223-240.
    2. Robison, Lindon J. & Siles, Marcelo E. & Schmid, A. Allan, 2002. "Social Capital And Poverty Reduction: Toward A Mature Paradigm," Agricultural Economic Report Series 10941, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    3. Benjamin Ho, 2012. "Apologies as Signals: With Evidence from a Trust Game," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(1), pages 141-158, January.
    4. David Sally, 2002. "`What an Ugly Baby!'," Rationality and Society, , vol. 14(1), pages 78-108, February.
    5. Khalil, Elias L., 2004. "What is altruism?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 97-123, February.
    6. Lynne, Gary D., 2006. "Toward a dual motive metaeconomic theory," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 634-651, August.
    7. Khalil, Elias L., 2004. "Is a group better off with more altruists? Not necessarily," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 89-92, January.
    8. Khalil, Elias, 2004. "Integrity, Shame and Self-Rationalization," Vassar College Department of Economics Working Paper Series 55, Vassar College Department of Economics.
    9. Zak, Paul J., 2011. "Moral markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 212-233, February.
    10. Elias L. Khalil, 2001. "Adam Smith and Three Theories of Altruism," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 67(4), pages 421-435.
    11. Enrico Colombatto & Valerio Tavormina, 2015. "Does altruism justify privileges?," ICER Working Papers 01-2015, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    12. Hang Ye & Fei Tan & Mei Ding & Yongmin Jia & Yefeng Chen, 2011. "Sympathy and Punishment: Evolution of Cooperation in Public Goods Game," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20.
    13. Cárdenas Juan Camilo & Casas-Casas Andrés & Méndez Nathalie Méndez, 2014. "The Hidden Face of Justice: Fairness, Discrimination and Distribution in Transitional Justice Processes," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 33-60, January.
    14. Elias Khalil, 2001. "The context problematic, behavioral economics and the transactional view: an introduction to 'John Dewey and economic theory'," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 107-130.
    15. Rebitzer, James B. & Taylor, Lowell J., 2011. "Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motives: Standard and Behavioral Approaches to Agency and Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 8, pages 701-772, Elsevier.
    16. Paul J Zak & Angela A Stanton & Sheila Ahmadi, 2007. "Oxytocin Increases Generosity in Humans," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(11), pages 1-5, November.
    17. Sandra Peart & David Levy, 2005. "A discipline without sympathy: the happiness of the majority and its demise," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 38(3), pages 937-954, August.
    18. Fairchild, Richard, 2011. "An entrepreneur's choice of venture capitalist or angel-financing: A behavioral game-theoretic approach," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 359-374, May.
    19. Khalil, Elias L., 2011. "The mirror neuron paradox: How far is understanding from mimicking?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 86-96, January.
    20. Elias Khalil, 2009. "Natural selection and rational decision: two concepts of optimization," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 417-435, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ethics; economy; Adam Smith; sympathy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rei:ecoins:v:9:y:2007:i:16:p:63-87. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Paola Rodríguez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feextco.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.