Clocks, Creation and Clarity: Insights on Ethics and Economics from a Feminist Perspective
This essay discusses the origins, biases, and effects on contemporary discussions of economics and ethics of the unexamined use of the metaphor “an economy is a machine.” Both neoliberal economics and many critiques of capitalist systems take this metaphor as their starting point. The belief that ec...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2004
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| In: |
Ethical theory and moral practice
Year: 2004, Volume: 7, Issue: 4, Pages: 381 |
| Further subjects: | B
Economics
B Ethics B Feminism B organism B Science B Metaphor B Mechanism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay discusses the origins, biases, and effects on contemporary discussions of economics and ethics of the unexamined use of the metaphor “an economy is a machine.” Both neoliberal economics and many critiques of capitalist systems take this metaphor as their starting point. The belief that economies run according to universal “laws of motion,” however, is shown to be based on a variety of rationalist thinking that – while widely held – is inadequate for explaining lived human experience. Feminist scholarship in the philosophy of science and economics has brought to light some of the biases that have supported the mechanistic worldview. Possible alternatives to the “an economy is a machine” include “an economy is a creative process” and “an economy is an organism.” Such metaphors are intellectually defensible as guides to scientific inquiry and provide a richer ground for moral imagination. |
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| ISSN: | 1572-8447 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Ethical theory and moral practice
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s10677-004-2220-5 |