The book “Economics as a Moral Science” edited by Peter Rona and Laszlo Zsolnai was published in 2017 by Springer. This volume is the first product of the economics research project of the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice of Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.
The book is an attempt to reclaim economics as a moral science. It argues that ethics is a relevant component at all levels of economic activity, from the individual and rganizational to societal and global. Taking ethical considerations into account is needed to explain and predict the behavior of economic agents, as well as for evaluating and designing economic policies and mechanisms. The book employs a personalist approach that sees human persons with free will and conscience as the basic agents of economic life, and defines human flourishing as the ultimate goal of economic activities. The book intends to demonstrate that economics can gain a lot in meaning and also in analytical power by reuniting itself with ethics. Economic “facts” are interwoven with ethical content. Utility calculations and moral considerations co-determine economic behavior and outcomes.
The contents of the book are as follows:
Part I. Introduction
Peter Rona (University of Oxford): Why Economics is a Moral Science
Laszlo Zsolnai (Corvinus University of Budapest): Issues and Themes in Moral Economics
Part II. The Moral Foundations of Economics
Stefano Zamagni (University of Bologna): Economics as if Ethics Mattered
Luk Bouckaert (Catholic University of Leuven): Teleological Reasoning in Economics
Laszlo Zsolnai (Corvinus University of Budapest): Economic Rationality versus Human Reason
Hendrik Opdebeeck (University of Antwerp): Rediscovering a Personalist Economy
Knut Ims (NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen): Happiness and Human Flourishing
Toon Vandevelde (Catholic University of Leuven): Understanding Financial Crises: The Contribution of the Philosophy of Money
Luigino Bruni (LUMSA University, Rome): Economics and Vulnerability: Relationships, Incentives, Meritocracy
Part III. Companies and Their Management
Peter Rona (University of Oxford): Ethics, Economics and the Corporation
David Miller and Michael Thate (Princeton University): Are Business Ethics Relevant?
Kevin Jackson (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management): Economy of Mutuality
Mike Thompson (China Europe International Business School, Shanghai, and University of Victoria, British Columbia): Economic Wisdom for Managerial Decision-Making
Part IV. Economic Policy and Economic Development
Johan Verstraeten (Catholic University of Leuven): Catholic Social Thought and Amartya Sen on Justice
Helen Alford (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas – Angelicum): The Theological Virtue of Charity in the Economy: Reflections on ‘Caritas in veritate’
Zsolt Boda (Corvinus University of Budapest): Ethics of Development in the Age of Globalization
Francois Lepineux (Rennes School of Business) and Jean-Jacques Rose (EHESS–CNRS, Marseille): Transdisciplinarity, Governance and the Common Good
Part V. Conclusions
Peter Rona (University of Oxford) and Laszlo Zsolnai (Corvinus University of Budapest): Agenda for Future Research and Action