Positive Ethics in Economics
Résumé
Economics is often accused of being a-ethical, not to mention totally immoral. Pure and perfect competition is criticised and serves as a focal point in this denunciation. The criteria of efficiency are rejected in the name of rules of justice. It is thus common to assert that economics should be more ethical, more concerned with its social effects, for example, and that it should also be equitable. This is essential in fighting modern day poverty and foreseeing intergenerational equity. Redistributive measures, especially taxes, could be enforced for this purpose. Similarly, ethical taxes can be introduced in the event of financial corruption. Economics is thus assimilated to real consequences of a particular economic mode of functioning. This, however, refers only to a specific part of economics. Economics has also developed a group of references associating itself to ethics. One could observe the presence of practical ethics in the economic analysis of behaviour that integrates certain modalities of ethical preference, altruism or, still more, a responsible calculation based on norms. In sum, this economic analysis integrates ethical considerations into preferences by differentiating them from economic considerations. Within this context, ethics appears either as a single substitutable charac-teristic amongst many others in the utility function or as an absolute priority in current economics that delimits all possible economic choices. Economics is henceforth associated with morality in man's daily life. A concept of positive ethics is thus created and aims at introducing a mode of reasoning which takes the adoption of ethical behaviour by individuals into account.