Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik

Relational Equality and Justice

In his paper: "Justice or equality?" Gordon answers the question of its title as follows: The 'or' is out of place, since equality is an important part of justice. Therefore egalitarianism is superior to prioritarianism. Gordon repeatedly focuses on the following distinction: Egalitarians think that equality is the most important part of justice, whereas prioritarians assume that equality is less important for justice. So the difference between egalitarianism and non-egalitarianism is that eg...

Justice or Equality?*

The paper has two aims. First, I discuss the most important arguments in the 'Why-Equality' debate with respect to the egalitarian and prioritarian point of views on the relation between justice and equality. This entails: the by-product objection of equality, the objection of inhumanity, the objection of complexity and the argument of the presumption of equality. Second, I give on the basis of the analysis of the main arguments a short outline of an own account on the relation between justic...

Politische Ökonomie, Wirtschaftsethisch Rekonfiguriert: Funktionale Systemökonomie Im Kontext Praktischer Sozialökonomie/Political Economy Ethically Reconfigured: Functional Systems Economy in the Context of Practical Social Economy

Political Economy has lost its classic self-awareness of being an ethical an a political discipline. Rather it works as a methodical reduction of politics to "pure" economics today. But this reduction itself is normatively based, of course. It is the task of Economic Ethics to elucidate the "implicit ethics" of the economic approach and to advance a reflected treatment of the factual tensions between "free" market economy and the principles of a well-ordered society of free citizens. The auth...

Vom 'Klassischen Irrtum' Der Neoklassik*: Kritische Anmerkungen Zur Klassikeradaption Im Modernen Ökonomieverständnis/the 'Classical Misunderstanding' of Neoclassical Theory

In the early economic writings economics is seen as an efficient tool to commit moral values. Nevertheless the modern interpretation of classical economists uses their ideas to line up a moral-free economic theory. In this way the modern interpretation of classical economic theory is based at least on three fundamental misunderstandings: first a historical misunderstanding, i.e. the belief, that classical economic theory is a result of a development from moral science to economic science, sec...

Politische Ökonomie, Wirtschaftspolitik Und Wirtschaftsethik: Was Bleibt Vom Forschungsprogramm von John Neville Keynes?*/Political Economy, Economic Policy and Economic Ethics - What Remains of the Research Program of John Neville Keynes?

In 1890, John Neville Keynes, the father of John Maynard Keynes, published a book entitled "The Scope and Method of Political Economy". In it, he introduced the distinction between positive economic theory ("Political Economy", in the terminology of his time), economic ethics, and the "art" of economic policy as applied economics. We present Keynes's arguments and ask whether this distinction does still make sense today. In particular, we confront it with methodological questions such as valu...

Normative Grundlagen Der Sozialpolitik*: Solidarismus, Historische Schule Und Die Politische Ökonomie Des Wohlfahrtsstaates/Normative Foundations of Social Policy: Solidarism, Historical School and the Political Economy of the Welfare State

Recognising the interdenominational conflicts that have shaped the historical formation of the German welfare state, this paper examines the specific contributions of Catholic social thought, as outlined in the solidaristic approach of Heinrich Pesch SJ. The programmatic framework of Pesch's solidarism is explored in the context of the contemporary discourse on social policy that was promoted by the Historical School, in particular by Adolph Wagner, Gustav Schmoller and Werner Sombart. The le...

Selbstbestimmtheitsorientierte Risikoethik: Eine Ethische Einordnung Des 'Value of a Statistical Life'

Beratung Und Ethik

Beratung und Ethik: Praxis, Modelle und Dimensionen, edited by Peter Heintel, Larissa Krainer und Martina Ukowitz, is reviewed.

Hoffnungsträger Nanotechnologie: Ein Dialog Über Gesellschaftliche Und Ethische Fragen Einer Neuen Technologie/High Hopes for Nanotechnology - a Dialogue On Societal and Ethical Questions Surrounding a New Technology

The field of nanotechnology has attracted widespread attention and funding in recent years. Moreover, the unique properties of nanotechnological applications suggest potential to solve some of the worlds most pressing challenges, but they come with uncertainties and risks as all new technologies. The purpose of this paper is to outline the field of ethical and societal questions surrounding this new technology and to describe the Nanologue-project: A practically orientated approach which brin...

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