Economics as a Moral Science

Abstract

Economics is, and always has been, essentially a moral science? whatever the protestations to the contrary by some of its practitioners. There are, of course, those who claim that economics, as a science, is concerned only with the implications of the fact of relative scarcity. Lionel Robbins and Milton Friedman are obvious examples of this point of view. And at least since the time of Jean Baptiste Say (1803), there has been a steady stream of economists who have insisted that their task is to remain unconcerned with the social issues of the day, striving always to keep the discipline scientific?that is, free from moral judgement or moral concern. But what this position has in fact meant is a historic concern by the economist for the status quo and the development of a scientific expertise which has defended and explained that status quo. For this is largely what marketplace economics has always been: an attempt to explain the mysteries and wonders and vagaries of the market as well as to divulge the blessings which the market bestows upon all of its followers. This is the legacy bequeathed by Say who argued that the economist must remain an impartial spectator. [Gide and Rist, p. 123] If he is to be purely scientific, he must remain theoretical and descriptive and in no case should the economist give advice to the public. This point of view was the logical outgrowth of the dictates of Jeremy Bentham, the 18th century social psychologist, who had such a tremendous impact on laying the basic psychological groundwork for the emerging science of Eco? nomics. [Bentham, 1843; Mitchell] The core idea of this viewpoint posits that what is good for society is simply what is good for the individual, as measured by the market, which is merely an extension of natural law. Individuals as individuals are all that matters. They are primary; society and the economy are secondary or derivative. And the task of the economist is to explain that secondary or derivative mechanism.

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