IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/1484.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evolutionary Economics and Moral Relativism - Some Thoughts

Author

Listed:
  • Binder, Martin

Abstract

Doubts about the decidability of moral questions have often been used as an excuse for economists to eschew any normative propositions. Evolutionary economics, still lacking a well-developed normative branch, gives rise to a form of descriptive moral relativism. This paper wants to explore the consequences of adopting a form of meta-ethical and normative moral relativism as well. It develops a normative position called ‘naturalistic relativism’, which is a naturalistically reconstructed neo-pragmatist form of relativism. The paper also gives an argument why this position seems to be the adequate normative correlate for evolutionary economics.

Suggested Citation

  • Binder, Martin, 2006. "Evolutionary Economics and Moral Relativism - Some Thoughts," MPRA Paper 1484, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:1484
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/1484/1/MPRA_paper_1484.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John B. Davis & D. W. Hands & Uskali Mäki (ed.), 1998. "The Handbook of Economic Methodology," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 741.
    2. Geoffrey M. Hodgson, 2002. "Darwinism in economics: from analogy to ontology," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 259-281.
    3. Martin Binder & Uta-Maria Niederle, 2006. "Institutions as Determinants of Preference Change – A One Way Relation?," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2006-07, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    4. Ulrich Witt, 1994. "Evolutionary economics," Chapters, in: Peter J. Boettke (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics, chapter 78, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Warke, Tom, 2000. "Mathematical Fitness in the Evolution of the Utility Concept from Bentham to Jevons to Marshall," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 5-27, March.
    6. Ulrich Witt, 2001. "special issue: Learning to consume - A theory of wants and the growth of demand," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 23-36.
    7. Jack Knight, 2001. "A Pragmatist Approach to the Proper Scope of Government," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 157(1), pages 28-48, March.
    8. Daniel Kahneman & Peter P. Wakker & Rakesh Sarin, 1997. "Back to Bentham? Explorations of Experienced Utility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 375-406.
    9. Ulrich Witt, 2003. "Economic policy making in evolutionary perspective," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 77-94, April.
    10. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, 1954. "Choice, Expectations and Measurability," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 68(4), pages 503-534.
    11. U. Witt, 2005. "From Sensory to Positivist Utilitarianism and Back -- The Rehabilitation of Naturalistic Conjectures in the Theory of Demand," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2005-07, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    12. Robert H. Bates & Avner Greif & Margaret Levi & Jean-Laurent, 1998. "Analytic Narratives," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 6355.
    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. Christian Schubert, 2013. "Is Novelty Always a Good Thing? Towards an Evolutionary Welfare Economics," Economic Complexity and Evolution, in: Guido Buenstorf & Uwe Cantner & Horst Hanusch & Michael Hutter & Hans-Walter Lorenz & Fritz Rahmeyer (ed.), The Two Sides of Innovation, edition 127, pages 209-242, Springer.
    2. Ulrich Witt, 2006. "Evolutionary Economics and Psychology," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2006-13, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    3. Christian Schubert, 2009. "Darwinism in Economics and the Evolutionary Theory of Policy-Making," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2009-10, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    4. Christian Cordes, 2009. "The Role of Biology and Culture in Veblenian Consumption Dynamics," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 115-142.
    5. Christian Schubert, 2006. "A Note on the Principle of "Normative Individualism"," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2005-17, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    6. Safarzyńska, Karolina, 2013. "Evolutionary-economic policies for sustainable consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 187-195.
    7. Richard Nelson & Davide Consoli, 2010. "An evolutionary theory of household consumption behavior," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 665-687, October.
    8. Benjamin Volland, 2013. "On the intergenerational transmission of preferences," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 217-249, October.
    9. Christian Schubert, 2012. "Pursuing Happiness," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 245-261, May.
    10. Christian Cordes, 2006. "Darwinism in economics: from analogy to continuity," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 529-541, December.
    11. A. Chai & A. Moneta, 2008. "At the Origins of Engel Curves Estimation," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2008-02, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    12. Leonhard K. Lades, 2012. "Impulsive Consumption and Reflexive Thought: Nudging Ethical Consumer Behavior," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2012-03, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    13. V. J. Vanberg, 2004. "Human Intentionality and Design In Cultural Evolution," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2004-02, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    14. Wolfhard Kaus, 2012. "Beyond Engel s Law - Pursuing an Engelian Approach to Welfare A Cross Country Analysis," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-028, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    15. Kaus, Wolfhard, 2013. "Beyond Engel's law - A cross-country analysis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 118-134.
    16. Ulrich Witt, 2016. "The transformations of utility theory: a behavioral perspective," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 211-228, October.
    17. Witt, Ulrich & Binder, Martin, 2013. "Disentangling motivational and experiential aspects of “utility” – A neuroeconomics perspective," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 27-40.
    18. Jack Vromen, 2008. "Ontological issues in evolutionary economics: The debate between Generalized Darwinism and the Continuity Hypothesis," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2008-05, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    19. Martin Binder, 2009. "Some Considerations Regarding the Problem of Multidimensional Utility," Jena Economics Research Papers 2009-099, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    20. Garofalo, Maria Rosaria, 2011. "Il volontariato può sostenere lo sviluppo? Riflessioni metodologiche per la costruzione di un frame work teorico [Can the voluntary sector sustain the development path of an economy? Suggestions fo," MPRA Paper 40008, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    evolutionary economics; moral relativism; sensory utilitarianism; continuity hypothesis; naturalistic relativism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z00 - Other Special Topics - - General - - - General
    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:1484. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.