Les valeurs économiques et les valeurs morales
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The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 1, 41-58Abstract: Economists have presumed that economic behavior is based on individual and collective value choices, and that these choices are essentially materialistic in that they seek to maximize selfishly defined social and personal utility above any other consideration. Our current economic systems reflect this presumption. This paper examines and supports the thesis that economic activity actually presupposes an often unacknowledged underlying morality of a more fundamental sort - a morality deriving from the value choices we make about the most basic aspects of human relationships and human existence: trustworthiness, truthfulness, cooperation, suffering, compassion, etc. In light of this thesis, it is seen that both capitalism and socialism are morally defective.
Economists have presumed that economic behavior is based on individual and collective value choices, and that these choices are essentially materialistic in that they seek to maximize selfishly defined social and personal utility above any other consideration. Our current economic systems reflect this presumption. This paper examines and supports the thesis that economic activity actually presupposes an often unacknowledged underlying morality of a more fundamental sort - a morality deriving from the value choices we make about the most basic aspects of human relationships and human existence: trustworthiness, truthfulness, cooperation, suffering, compassion, etc. In light of this thesis, it is seen that both capitalism and socialism are morally defective.