Ethical Dimensions of the Economy: Making Use of Hegel and the Concepts of Public and Merit Goods

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This book reflects philosophically about the socio-political dimension of economics. Part I provides normative reflections on the economy: Section I reflects on the interconnections between the multiple discourses on the economy, section II presents Hegel’s claim that the economic order is an ethical institution and defends his ontological view of the economy against the one of Adam Smith. Section III dialogues with economists about their concepts of public and merit goods. This section defends a Hegelian ontology of the economy through an analysis of technical concepts used by economists. Part II provides applications derived from the normative analysis: Section I presents the views of authors in different academic disciplines pointing to failures in late capitalism, in particular failures of American capitalism and section II asks the question:
What must one pay attention to in a transition from a command economy to a free market? Section III draws attention to an overlap of ideas found in Catholic Social Thought and in the publications of some recent Nobel prize winners in economics (Buchanan, Sen, Stiglitz).