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The Philosophy and Science of Morality

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Though some economists have ventured deeply into the intricate dilemmas of moral and democratic collective action—see for example Sen (1987) and Arrow (1951), I do not believe that this is necessary for all economists attempting to develop the broad principles of a moral economic thinking.

  2. 2.

    FDR 1/6/1941 “State of the Union” address to Congress, see: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/pdfs/fftext.pdf. In FDR’s own words:

    1. (a)

      The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

    2. (b)

      The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

    3. (c)

      The third is freedom from want which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

    4. (d)

      The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.

  3. 3.

    Dean Baker, “World’s Richest Man Tries to Defend Wealth Inequality,” Oct. 16, 2014, Al Jazeera America.

  4. 4.

    See for example (Gordon 2012) who argues that (in spite of levels of inequality that are unprecedented in the post-war period (Piketty 2014)) current and future innovation is declining.

  5. 5.

    “The CEO-to-Worker Compensation Ratio in 2012 of 273 Was Far Above That of the Late 1990s and 14 Times the Ratio of 20.1 in 1965,” Larry Michel, Economic Policy Institute (EPI) 9/24/2013, see: http://www.epi.org/publication/the-ceo-to-worker-compensation-ratio-in-2012-of-273/

  6. 6.

    Genetics, the transistor, and the theory of relativity, for example were all discovered by monks or salaried scientists: Mendel working at St. Thomas Abby, Shockley and Pearson at Bell Labs (indirectly publicly funded through regulated utility pricing), and of course Einstein at a Swiss patent office and subsequent non-profit universities and research institutes.

  7. 7.

    This is the “Pareto Optimality” standard championed by NC high theory to be discussed in later chapters.

  8. 8.

    I have never been to Denmark. However I am sure that it, like every other country in the world, has its downsides: Excessive drinking? Cold climate? Homogenous and xenophobic small country and culture? However, based on every broad measure of social and economic well-being that I have encountered, Denmark appears to excel, and large scale economic outcomes are, of necessity, best measured by broad indicators.

  9. 9.

    See for example OECD data presented in (Baiman 2014) and similar data presented in this book.

  10. 10.

    http://unsdsn.org/resources/publications/world-happiness-report-2013/

  11. 11.

    See: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

  12. 12.

    For example, though it flies in the face of Western valuation of “individual liberty,” China’s “one child” policy may be one of the single most important “collective action” steps to support the planetary sustainability of life that has ever been taken.Of course, this was not a democratic decision, which would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, in current “liberal capitalist” democracies, highlighting again the need for a more “collective” and “social choice” based morality in economics and other social sciences that would support these kinds of decisions should they be scientifically necessary.

  13. 13.

    See for example Susan Ehler on Thom Hartmann RT TV 8/8/2014 and interviewed by Annushay Hossain in Forbes Magazine, “Women’s Rights and World Population: A Conversation with Suzanne Ehler,” June 20, 2013. See also Susan Ehler Interview on Thom Hartmann’s “Big Picture” RT TV 8/8/2014.

  14. 14.

    Hickman, April 17, 2009, “Just what is it with evangelical Christians and global warming?” report on poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2009/apr/17/climate-change-religion.

  15. 15.

    Cited in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2010), section 5. on “Is and Ought,” see: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-moral/

  16. 16.

    Ibid.

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934191.html. Source: The Center for Effective Discipline, Columbus, Ohio: www.stophitting.com

  19. 19.

    See http://religions.pewforum.org/maps “Evangelical Protestants” map of US state shares.

  20. 20.

    For more recent evidence see: http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/pages/pdfs/Summary%20of%20research%20on%20the%20effects%20of%20corporal%20punishment%20April%202013.pdf which claims that: “more than 150 studies show associations between corporal punishment and a wide range of negative outcomes, while no studies have found evidence of any benefits.” (p. 2).

  21. 21.

    Though as far as I know, there is no support even among “moral pluralists” for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) beheadings of infidels, or Saudi Arabian beheadings of witches. This suggests that even those who believe in culture-based moral diversity have underlying moral redlines, supporting the notion that there are “universal” moral precepts that are widely shared among humans.

  22. 22.

    Cudd, Ann, “Contractarianism,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta, Ed.

  23. 23.

    The classic quote from Marx on this is:

    In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness (Marx 1859, Preface, p. 1).

  24. 24.

    Op. cit.

  25. 25.

    Op. cit.

  26. 26.

    Op. cit.

  27. 27.

    See: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

  28. 28.

    See (Baiman 2006, 2014) for models showing the workings of “unequal exchange” of labor, and “rentier” extraction of resources with (almost) no exchange for labor, in the world economy.

  29. 29.

    Readers who have been exposed to the work of one of the most insightful and influential “worldly moral philosophers” of all time, Karl Marx, will recognize these concerns as driving his withering critique of bourgeois “equal exchange ideology.”

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  1. Benedictine University, Illinois, USA

    Ron P. Baiman

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Baiman, R.P. (2016). The Philosophy and Science of Morality. In: The Morality of Radical Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-45559-8_2

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