In praise of functional morals and ethics

ABSTRACT

Building on the moral economy of Andrew Sayer and Dave Elder-Vass, this article advocates for a functional (not functionalist) approach to morals and ethics, and consequently to economics. By choosing words responsibly it aims to be an example of the conscientious attitude it advocates. In the first section, I find that Andrew Sayer's approach dovetails with Pierre Macherey's – notably due to Sayer's linking of the biological dependency and vulnerability of humans to realist ethics, via the key word needs. Ditto for Dave Elder-Vass and Macherey for similar reasons. Simplifying, the second section examines the contrary of biological models of norms: juridical models of norms, especially Kant's jurisprudence and Leon Walras's pure economics. The third section, Les valeurs de la vie, showcases Elder-Vass on how to build a functional economy. Then it further supports Macherey's proposals drawing on two of his main sources, Michel Foucault and Georges Canguilhem.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethics
• morals
• political economy
• Immanuel Kant
• Leon Walras
• Pierre Macherey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In other writings Walras made some important proposals for social justice, including the public ownership of land (Cirillo 1984).

2 The Wikipedia article ‘Xavier Bichat’ attributes this quote to his 1800 book Physiological Researches upon Life and Death. Accessed 10 February 2022.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Howard Richards

Howard Richards is a professor of philosophy retired from Earlham College who retains the title of Research Professor there. He now lives in Chile and teaches a course once a year in the EMBA programme at University of Cape Town. His philosophy teachers included Richard Rorty and Rom Harré.