Michael D. Higgins

“ In his last and important book entitled L'Empire de la valeur, [2] economist André Orléan remarks that the social sciences all deal with values – whether religious, moral, aesthetic, etc. – and that economics makes the same basic assumption as the other social sciences do, namely that members of society are able to coordinate their behaviour because they share certain values. But economic theory is unique, he claims, in that it has traditionally defined 'value' as a 'substance:' labour value in the case of classical theory; utility value in that of neo-classical theory. ”

“ The current state of the European economy, with its high levels of unemployment, poverty and increasing inequality, is a source of concern, anxiety and even moral outrage for many of our fellow citizens. ”

“ What constitutes a good life? What is necessary to human flourishing? What kinds of human capabilities do particular societies value, encourage, genuinely enable, or block? What conceptions of human nature and the good society underpin our contemporary economic discourse? Can we, as ordinary citizens, enter the discourse on economic policy issues, or are we too economically illiterate for that? ”

“ Smith, of course, has spelled out very strongly the limitation of the profit motive, by arguing, for example, that while "prudence" was "of all the virtues that which is most helpful to the individual," "humanity, justice, generosity, and public spirit, are the qualities most useful to others." Moreover, although he was convinced of the necessity of a well-functioning market, he never argued against the importance of economic institutions other than the markets, nor did he deny that the market economy produced important "omissions." ”

“ Moreover, if the central goal of philosophy is, as suggested by Martha Nussbaum "human flourishing", there is surely much to be gained from a return to Aristotle, among other scholars, and the field of virtue ethics, which points to an active, rather than passive, view of flourishing, in which humans seek a life that they have reason to value.
A second possible purpose for action is to examine the means by which we can embed in both our ideology and our institutions values that emphasise the irreducibly social and relational dimension of the human condition. ”

“ As Bruno Schulz put it, "the possibility suggests itself that no dreams, however absurd or senseless, are wasted in the universe. Embedded in the dream is a hunger for its own reification, a demand that imposes an obligation on reality." ”

“ So how might we proceed to embed a strong ethical dimension in the structures that shape our collective life? What are the contemporary possibilities for developing ethical arts of economic government? What are the sources of ethics and how might a consciousness on the importance of ethics be supported?
A first, obvious, avenue for action is education, as a field fundamental to the formation and transformation of young people both as subjects and agents. ”

“ Is the instinct to care for another person quantifiable, transferable, or commodifiable?
To reflect on the demands of care, love and friendship is to replace the categories of utility, efficiency and self-love with the values of mutuality, long-term commitment, trust and responsibility. It is to conceive of the Other as an end in himself, as a source of non-reciprocal responsibility, in the sense of Emmanuel Lévinas.
Care also raises the fundamental question of how we relate to time ”

“ This question of measurement too is a vast and important one. I strongly believe that we need to re-examine the categories by which we gauge economic value and human worth, as well as the language we employ to do so. It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in times where economic worth is primarily seen as a matter of productive capacity. ”

“ And if from all of the possible starting points I had a choice, I think I would reflect on Aristotle's advice to his son Nicomachus, that friendship makes a demand on our virtue greater than justice. An ethics of Aristotelian friendship, infused with notions of care and responsibility, is a fruitful paradigm to conceive of our relations to our fellow citizens and to future generations. ”

“ Neo-liberalism, then, does make assumptions about human nature and the good society. Yet these are rarely stated. Neo-liberal propositions are usually presented as pragmatic responses, while 'ideology' is ostensibly rejected as the imputed flaw of others, who may have a commitment to models of social economy or institutional economics that might take account of contingencies such as unemployment. ”

“ Sound political economy, Smith argued in the The Wealth of Nations, has to have "two distinct objects": "first, to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people, or more properly to enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves; and secondly, to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue sufficient for the public services" that people agree are needed. ”

“ Then too, a number of prominent economists, while staying within the frame of market economics, have argued in favour of a focus on the wellbeing and happiness of populations rather than on GDP, as have Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi in their 2009 report on Economic Performance and Social Progress. ”

“ Thus, whereas their fellow social scientists regard value as a set of social representations, the expression of collective beliefs, economists use 'value' as if it were an objective fact, which facilitates a claim to scientific status for economics. ”

“ Even an excellent version of Politics and Society is not an adequate substitute. Philosophy as a training in how to think, how to address issues of decision-making in areas of life's fundamental and applied questions, is a gift of skill – a skill that can be taught and acquired. ”

“ Being cared for is not only a condition for survival, it is also a prerequisite for human development and well-being. "All of us have urgent needs for care at various stages in our lives, as a consequence of infancy, illness, impairment or other vulnerabilities." ”

“ Such an archaeological approach to economic knowledge is a tool that enables us to assess the ethical consequences of the views neo-liberal thinkers harbour about what it means to be human, and the institutional arrangements that underpin their vision of the good society.
Indeed neo-liberalism is based on strong assumptions about human nature. ”

“ It is vital that we find ways to formally value the unique contribution that each citizen makes to society, all the more so since we are living through an era of high unemployment.
In her book entitled Utopia as Method, Ruth Levitas conjures up pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood member William Morris's question to expose the limitations of the current focus on GDP as an exclusive measure of growth:
"Is it all to end in a counting house on the top of a cinder heap?" ”

“ In this regard, it is useful to refer to historian of economic thought Philip Mirowski's analysis of the activities of the Swiss-based 'Mont Pelerin Society,' founded in 1947 on a closed-membership basis, which was for a while the premier site of construction of neo-liberalism. [4] Mirowski describes the Society as a "thought collective," whose project was to outline a future movement diverging from classical liberalism, and he traces the migration of their ideas to university departments, think tanks and policy making circles at both national and international level. ”

“ Our schools' curricula and pedagogical methods reflect the kind of humanity our society seeks and nurtures. The society we so dearly wish for will not take shape unless we acknowledge the need for an education of character and desires, the need to encourage and support critical reflection and a more holistic approach to knowledge. ”

“ Neo-liberalism has operated a profound deconstruction of the special status classical liberalism conferred on human labour, and it is worth exploring a bit further the fundamental differences between these two visions of human nature. ”

“ It is possible, I suggest, to build our society on the principle of solidarity, which in the short term means, as I wrote in Renewing the Republic, "establishing a floor of citizenship below which no citizen would be allowed to fall. ”

“ According to Mirowski, this view of Hayek's underpins the contemporary proliferation of baroque financial instruments and the notion that the market always provides solutions to the problems it has created in the first place, whether in the form of carbon emissions permits, microloans, or through the belief that the best people to clean up the crisis are the same bankers and financiers who caused it. Let us never forget Alan Greenspan's phrase when advocating against the regulation of Wall Street that the Glass-Steagall Act represented – "The market is screaming for product." ”

“ As Lynch puts it, "bonds of friendship or kinship are frequently what bring meaning, warmth and joy to life... They are both a vital component of what enables people to lead a successful life and an expression of our fundamental interdependence." ”

“ Therefore I welcome today's opportunity to outline, however briefly, why I have deemed it essential that we collectively pursue a reflection on ethics, and how we, as a people, would benefit from setting about the task of formulating an appropriate discourse for a change in public consciousness. ”

“ The point, therefore, is not to rescue any lesser pragmatism, but to "raise up our humanity" [16] and in doing so eliminate so much fear from our lives, enjoy the endless possibilities of our lives together, taking care. ”

“ But the recent crisis has failed, so far, to prompt any far-reaching self-examination within departments of economics in universities across the world, as to how economics is taught and should be taught, and what the consequences are of teaching in terms of policy prescription. ”

“ The fascination with quantification is a distinctive feature of our times. The rise of mathematical economics and its current hold on policy has a knowable history. That trend can be traced beyond Léon Walras's Elements of Pure Economics and the marginalist revolution, back to William Petty, the first numerical economist, whose ideas were later developed by Cantillon and Jevons. In the late seventeenth century, Petty described his endeavour in these terms ”

“ Homo Economicus is an entrepreneur, an entrepreneur of himself." [5] This "government of the self", the notion that men's economic worth can be defined in terms of human capital and skill sets constitutes a drastic departure from classical liberal doctrine. ”

“ The level of wages depends on a fundamental standard that corresponds to the minimum of resources necessary for a man to live. But this standard is determined, in every era, by opinion. What yesterday was considered to be a sufficient minimum no longer satisfies the requirements of moral conscience today. ”

“ Indeed the proliferation of ethical manuals and codes of conduct in the various professional sectors will be of only limited consequence if we do not also ensure that their purpose is understood by, and not just enforced upon, those for whom they are designed. ”

“ When widely distributed, it can facilitate the emergence of a consensus around shared concepts of rights and duty, charity, equality, in a way that acknowledges the right to democratic participation in a deliberative democracy. ”

“ Specifically, there would surely be considerable merit in introducing the teaching of philosophy in our schools, which could facilitate the fostering of an ethical consciousness in our fellow citizens. ”

“ For this, we might draw upon the recent work on Europe by Jürgen Habermas, which suggests that democratic participation and self-development can go together when they are informed by the values of tolerance, reciprocity, morality and reflexivity. ”