Overview

With this book, economist Leland B. Yeager grounds moral and political philosophy in the requirements of a well-functioning society, one whose members reap the gains from peaceful co-operation while pursuing their own diverse goals. The book explores the reasons an individual may have for helping to uphold such a society rather than seeking a free ride on the moral behaviour of others. A work in the tradition of Hume, Smith, Mill, von Mises, Hayek and Hazlitt, it expounds a rules or indirect version of utilitarianism. It reviews criticisms of utilitarianism in detail, as well as alternative grounds of ethics including contractarianism, rights-based doctrines, and appeals to specific intuitions. Yeager brings the insights of economics to bear on a field usually dominated by philosophers and theologians. Ethics comes across as a subject amply open to the findings of economics and the other social and natural sciences.

Full Product Details

9781843760429

Table of Contents

Reviews

`. . . this is a very ambitious book - ranging over a great deal of territory and a great number of issues . . . the general perspectives offered are certainly engaging.' -- Alan Hamlin, Journal of Economic Methodology `. . . an illuminating book, informed by careful thought and wide-ranging scholarship.' -- David Gordon, The Mises Review `Economics claims to be a science of choice and its unintended consequences, but economists sneak moral judgments in through the back door. Ethics, on the other hand, often falters on the stilts of weak economic theories and assumptions. The result - economics without ethics is often sterile, and ethics without economics is often incoherent. Severed from one another, each can be dangerously misleading, and each misses the opportunity to better understand the economic and moral complexity behind social cooperation. Ethics as Social Science helps reconcile the two disciplines, and represents years of seasoned, careful thinking on the topic. Using clear, straightforward language, Yeager argues that economists should be alert to their ethical positions, rather than preach tacitly behind the mask of social welfare analysis and the like. Calling for a comparative institutional analysis, Yeager himself advances an argument in favor of an indirect or rule utilitarianism, one that is sure to unleash debate among libertarians, classical liberals, and defenders of mainstream welfare economics, and among moral philosophers who follow the present state of economic theory.' -- David L. Prychitko, Northern Michigan University, US

'... this is a very ambitious book - ranging over a great deal of territory and a great number of issues ... the general perspectives offered are certainly engaging.' -- Alan Hamlin, Journal of Economic Methodology '... an illuminating book, informed by careful thought and wide-ranging scholarship.' -- David Gordon, The Mises Review 'Economics claims to be a science of choice and its unintended consequences, but economists sneak moral judgments in through the back door. Ethics, on the other hand, often falters on the stilts of weak economic theories and assumptions. The result - economics without ethics is often sterile, and ethics without economics is often incoherent. Severed from one another, each can be dangerously misleading, and each misses the opportunity to better understand the economic and moral complexity behind social cooperation. Ethics as Social Science helps reconcile the two disciplines, and represents years of seasoned, careful thinking on the topic. Using clear, straightforward language, Yeager argues that economists should be alert to their ethical positions, rather than preach tacitly behind the mask of social welfare analysis and the like. Calling for a comparative institutional analysis, Yeager himself advances an argument in favor of an indirect or rule utilitarianism, one that is sure to unleash debate among libertarians, classical liberals, and defenders of mainstream welfare economics, and among moral philosophers who follow the present state of economic theory.' -- David L. Prychitko, Northern Michigan University, US

Author Information

The late Leland B. Yeager, formerly Ludwig von Mises Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics, Auburn University and Paul Goodloe McIntire Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Virginia, US

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