In What Sense Must the Sciences be Grounded in Ethico‐ Religious Values?

Abstract

Part I The International Conference on “Epistemological Foundations of Social Theory” was an intriguing step in the project of establishing a new ‘ethico‐economic’ paradigm. The conviction that a ‘value‐free’ economics is no longer adequate for understanding or living within the world we inhabit, motivated participants: the vision of such an economics is failing fast because it is rooted in a divorce between economics and the enriching influences of the other social sciences, philosophy and religion. And this divorce means economics works with a distorted representation of human nature, and consequently inhibits the achievement of social justice. Discussion and debate at the Conference clarified and explored that conviction, showing it to be a reasoned premise for an argument rather than an assumption. Successfully articulating the argument for an alternate vision of ethico‐economics, is, however, no easy task.

Citation

Nicholls, R. (1991), "In What Sense Must the Sciences be Grounded in Ethico‐ Religious Values?", Humanomics, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 60-83. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb006113