On Ethics and Economics Book Review

On moral philosophy and frugals Amartya Sen Blackwell Publishers, 1987, pp. 148, Rs. 271 On Ethics and Economics by Amartya Sen centres on a particular phenomenon that the write considers unfortunate to the discipline. In this playscript, Amartya Sen talks about the continued and ever change magnitude distancing of stintings from morality. This book has three chapters and under each chapter, there argon sub topics. That makes the book more than structured and easy to understand yet for a person who is not so competent in the pack of Economics.Though the book was written in 1987, most of the arguments still apply in todays world. Amartya Sen starts off with an Edward Clerihaw Bentley verse about a major practitioner of semipolitical economics and this sets the tone for the rest of the book. The cause basically tries to argue that ethics-related impost of Economics dates back to the days of Aristotle and that Economics ultimately goes hand in hand with the area of Ethics and Politics. Amartya Sen certainly and in a very(prenominal) obvious manner, questions the disassociation of the study of Economics from that of ethics and political philosophy.Hence, this book is undoubtedly a very important considering for those who are interest in connecting the dots between economics and business ethics. Professor Sen, while agreeing that the plan approach to Economics has been often fruitful, criticises the same engineering approach by saying that it has substantially impoverished the modern economics because it has created a space between economics and ethics. He also goes on to explain that the exacting Economics has led to ignoring complex ethical consideration which effect piece being behaviour.Professor Sen believes that the growing distances between Ethics and Economics has affected the former more. The designer is extremely persuasive when he suggests enlarging the role of welfare economics in understanding the basis for policy decisions involv ing social achievements. Professor Sen truly believes that Economic advancement is going on at full steam without every moderation from the discipline of ethics and that the role of ethics has been ignored by all the policy makers and modern economists. Hence, it is not surprising that Business Ethics is regarded as an oxymoron in the business world.The author tries to relate between economic behaviour and shrewdity. He agrees with the assumption that Humans think rationally. Though the author says that the rational behaviour might not be the actual behaviour all the time, he also says that this particular assumption is better than anticipate the humans think irrationally, which leave alone lead to more mistakes than the assumption soon in use. The amount of space and importance given to the assumption by the author makes the reader think about how rationally an individual or the policy makers think today.It plays a huge role in the study of economics. Professor Sen then goes o n to talk about the self -interest and rational behaviour. In the second chapter, Economic Judgement and Moral Philosophy, to bring more sanity into the discussion, Professor Sen has brought in the areas that have been neglected by scholars when transaction with the issues of social achievement. They consist of values, rights and freedom, welfare, self-interest and all those that toilettenot be reduced to a single denomination called utility.According to welfares notion of rationality, it is not incorrect for a person to put his self-interest ahead and to choose the put forward which maximises his welfare regardless of the goals of others in the society. Professor Sen introduces something called as Agency aim when he talks about the dual nature of a person. I completely agree with Professor Sen when he says that a person thinks similar an agency when he recognises and acknowledges goals of other people in the society and that a person thinks in terms of a well-being, which too calls for his/her own attention.This keister be applied to the Game Theory and the example of Prisoners Dilemma. The arguments put off by Sen by promoting ethics to economics are very utile to current economic scenarios faced by the global community. For instance, the problem of befoulment cannot be solved by providing incentives, but by developing a mind-set that is largely away from self-centredness. If one is unfamiliar with the problem of ethics other than utilitarian standard of analysis, then reading and comprehending this book could be a struggle or might find it difficult to read this book.Perhaps the terms wants and needs ought to be differentiated so that the choice of individuals will be dictated by needs rather than wants. If this perspective can be used to moderate on the usefulness of utilitarianism or welfarism, and is integrate within the matrix of the discipline, then there is hope that ethics and economics can contribute to a balanced approach to solving proble ms of human existence, which is very much the need of the hour right now. -Book review by K Ravi Teja Reddy