Covenant and Moral Psychology in Polycentric Orders
The Austrian and Bloomington Schools of Political Economy
ISBN: 978-1-78714-844-4, eISBN: 978-1-78714-843-7
Publication date: 17 October 2017
Abstract
Both the Austrian and Bloomington Schools emphasize the dispersal of information to the level of individual agents. An underappreciated difference is the Bloomington emphasis on the moral psychology of agents and its relation to covenant. Covenant refers to a habit, a sense of obligation to consider the interests of the other in decision making, and a commitment to do so that is not easily or unilaterally broken. This chapter seeks to elaborate the lineage of covenant in constituting political order and its implications for the moral psychology of agents and artisanship. This exploration raises issues of metaphysical foundations as they relate to values and to the Hobbesian–Aristotelian divide in starting points. An application to the environmental crisis, with particular reference to vested interests promoting disinformation, obfuscation, and doubt about anthropogenic climate change, suggests value in emphasizing covenant.
Keywords
Citation
Malik, A. (2017), "Covenant and Moral Psychology in Polycentric Orders", The Austrian and Bloomington Schools of Political Economy (Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 22), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 107-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-213420170000022007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited