Macrogreed
In the previous chapter we encountered the conundrums surrounding the relationship between Islam, which maintains a nominal prohibition of usury, and the state of economic development. One direction of explanation is that, at low levels of development, such curbs may be efficient. In a society with low levels of economic development, greed threatens the community. Stocks of food, etc. may be a buffer against risk of natural disasters, attack by enemies, seasonal failures and so on. The greedy...
Business Ethics
On the face of it, it is hard not to envisage a conflict between free market economics and ethics, as normally understood in a philosopher's lexicon, given that telling lies and perpetuating deceit may be a means of increasing profits. We have already encountered this view with Mandeville, in 1704, and the sociologist Ross, in 1907, the latter fulminating against this fact and the former waspishly celebrating it, both at times of a shift in gear towards an ever more business-driven culture....
Murder And Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is now mainly seen as a deterrent for murder, although it has always been in existence somewhere for other crimes as well. In early nineteenth century England it was a sentence for many minor crimes of theft, but was frequently commuted to deportation. Whether or not it is actually carried out, the application of a death sentence is symbolic of the high sinful-ness of the activity. This is one possible explanation of why it is presently applied to offences of the consumption...
Metapreferences And Selfcontrol
The story so far is as follows. Sins can be fitted into economic models as externalities. The Becker-Lancaster model allows us to handle them in terms of being 'bad' characteristics of an otherwise pleasurable experience. If part of the price of sin is being caught and made to suffer, then we can handle that in terms of an SEU model or some variant of game theory. All of this is premised on a rational choice foundation. Is there something unsatisfactory about thinking in terms of rational...