IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ctl/louvir/1996014.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Competition, consumerism, and the "Other". A philosophical investigation into the ethics of economic competition

Author

Listed:
  • Arnsperger, Christian

    (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES); Université catholique de Louvain, Chaire Hoover; Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS))

Abstract

This paper presents a philosophical discussion of the ethical foundations of economic competition, based in large part on Emmanuel Levinas's theory of exteriority and of responsibility for the "Other". The claim is that competition, notwithstanding its positive effects in terms of efficiency and innovativeness, ontologically neglects the "other-ness" of individuals. The fundamental factor in the neglect is the "consumerist" orientation of competitive capitalism through which even small price differences can cause large shifts in demand, so that many firms are choicelessly dependant on competitors' behavior. This analysis based on Levinas significantly deepens Frank Knight's seventy year-old ethical critique of competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnsperger, Christian, 1996. "Competition, consumerism, and the "Other". A philosophical investigation into the ethics of economic competition," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1996014, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:1996014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/IRES/9614.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Knight, Frank H., 1923. "The Ethics of Competition," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 37, pages 579-624, August.
    2. Harsanyi, John C., 1992. "Game and decision theoretic models in ethics," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications, in: R.J. Aumann & S. Hart (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 19, pages 669-707, Elsevier.
    3. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1996. "Whither Socialism?," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262691825, December.
    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. Marco Faravelli & Randall Walsh, 2011. "Smooth Politicians And Paternalistic Voters: A Theory Of Large Elections," Levine's Working Paper Archive 786969000000000250, David K. Levine.
    2. Oznur Ozdamar & Eleftherios Giovanis & Sahizer Samuk, 2020. "State business relations and the dynamics of job flows in Egypt and Turkey," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 519-558, December.
    3. D. Patinkin, 1995. "The training of an economist," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 48(195), pages 359-395.
    4. de Soto Jesus Huerta, 1998. "The Ongoing Methodenstreit of The Austrian School," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-40, March.
    5. James A. Roumasset, 2002. "The Microeconomics of Agricultural Development in the Philippines," Working Papers 200210, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    6. Marina Bianchi & Sergio Nisticò, 2018. "Shackle: an enquirer into choice," Working Papers 2018-03, Universita' di Cassino, Dipartimento di Economia e Giurisprudenza.
    7. Andrew Lister, 2017. "Markets, desert, and reciprocity," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 16(1), pages 47-69, February.
    8. Gita Surie & Allan Ashley, 2008. "Integrating Pragmatism and Ethics in Entrepreneurial Leadership for Sustainable Value Creation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 235-246, August.
    9. Robbie Mochrie, 2000. "An Appraisal of Debt Relief for Poor Countries," CERT Discussion Papers 0005, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    10. Ingela Alger & Jean-François Laslier, 2022. "Homo moralis goes to the voting booth: Coordination and information aggregation," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 34(2), pages 280-312, April.
    11. Teisl, Mario F. & Roe, Brian, 1998. "The Economics of Labeling: An Overview of Issues for Health and Environmental Disclosure," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 140-150, October.
    12. Edward L. Glaeser & Andrei Shleifer, 2003. "The Rise of the Regulatory State," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(2), pages 401-425, June.
    13. Esteban Muñoz Sobrado, 2022. "Taxing Moral Agents," CESifo Working Paper Series 9867, CESifo.
    14. Andrei Shleifer, 1998. "State versus Private Ownership," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 133-150, Fall.
    15. Sophie Brana & Mathilde Maurel & Jérôme Sgard, 1999. "Enterprise Adjustment and the Role of Bank Credit in Russia: Evidence from a 420 Firms Qualitative Survey," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 41(4), pages 47-69, December.
    16. Ross B. Emmett, 2014. "Economics Is Not All of Life," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 11(2), pages 144-152, May.
    17. Mushtaq Khan, 2018. "Institutions and Asia’s development: The role of norms and organizational power," WIDER Working Paper Series 132, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Tim Rooth, 2006. "Revisiting the mature economy: Britain, 1860-1939," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 119-126.
    19. Christopher Blattman, 2008. "From Violence to Voting: War and political participation in Uganda," Working Papers 138, Center for Global Development.
    20. Luca Fiorito & Massimiliano Vatiero, 2018. "Positional goods and social welfare: a note on George Pendleton Watkins’ neglected contribution," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 460-472, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Competition; Consumer economics; Ethics; Philosophy of economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General
    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:ctl:louvir:1996014. 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: Virginie LEBLANC (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iruclbe.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.