Philip Pilkington: Economics as Metaphysics and Morals
By Philip Pilkington, a journalist and heathen currently living in Dublin, Ireland
Belligerent ghouls
Run Manchester schools
Spineless swines
Cemented minds
– The Smiths, The Headmaster Ritual
Human beings have always and probably will always construct moral systems around which they structure their thoughts and actions. Some of these are quite simple and basic – for example: laws that prohibit murder. But some are remarkably complex – massive theological, metaphysical and religious systems that are disseminated in varied forms among countless numbers of men.
But here’s a question: to what extent is economic theory – I mean: the ‘highest’ tenets of economic theory – an arbitrarily constructed, yet extremely intellectually sophisticated moral system? By that I mean: a system of postulates constructed to limit and restrict our actions and thoughts. And if we find that economics is simply an arbitrary system of thought, no different in essence from the theologies of yore, is there an alternative approach that won’t have us slipping into dogma?
In order to get a clearer view of this we must first try to understand what the purposes of moral systems of thought are and how they are constructed. For that we will briefly turn to the field of anthropology.
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