The Changing Face of Economics? Ethical Issues in Contemporary Economic Schools as a Consequence of Changes in the Concept of Human Nature
Streszczenie
The last financial crisis combined with some recent social trends (like growing inequality or environmental problems) inspired many contemporary economists to the
re-evaluation of actual economic knowledge in the search for solutions to these
problems. Modern economic schools (especially heterodox ones) stress the meaning
of ethical issues in economics more often. The thesis of the paper is that this revival
of the ethical face of present economics depends very strongly on the changing assumptions of human nature within economics and other disciplines which work
alongside economics, such as social psychology or business ethics, for instance. In
order to prove the thesis, the paper provides an evaluation of current economic
schools, especially within the heterodoxy, in search of their ethical aspects, and presents them as a result of the changing assumptions about human beings within those
schools. This ethical dimension of human beings manifests itself in different ways,
which can be perceived as a result of it being based on different ethical schools and
different psychological and philosophical assumptions about human nature. Therefore, the paper also considers the current developments of the view on human beings
in contemporary schools of economic ethics.
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