Massey University
School of Economics and Finance
Economics Section
Brown Bag series
1 June, 12.30pm
Social Science Tower 4.21
The Foundations of the Ethical Tradition of Economics:
Plato’s Republic[1]
James E. Alvey
School of Economics and Finance
Massey University
Palmerston North New Zealand
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses one work by Plato (427-347 BC), one of the founders of social thought in ancient Greece. Like several others, including Xenophon (434-355 BC), he was a student of Socrates (469-399 BC). Subsequently, Plato became the teacher of Aristotle (384-322 BC). In part due to the work of Amartya Sen, and his collaborator Martha Nussbaum, there has been a revival of interest in the classical Greeks, especially Aristotle. Sen identifies two traditions in economics: the ethical tradition and the engineering tradition. Plato fits with the former. His contribution to Aristotle’s understanding, and to the ethical origins of economics, has been under-rated. Plato wrote primarily dialogues, rather than treatises. This paper discusses his most famous work, the Republic. In this work, Plato’s analysis focuses on human psychology (i.e. the human soul). In the language of Amartya Sen, there is a strong ‘ethics-related’ view of motivation in Plato’s work. In addition, Plato also spells out some of his views on human well-being (human flourishing) and what Sen calls social achievement (a type of distributive justice). The first section of the paper provides a brief introduction. The second and third sections discuss the Republic. Section 2 considers the ethical and political context of the work. Section 3 presents Plato’s political economy in the work. The fourth section provides some concluding comments. Finally, there is a short appendix on the philosopher and the good life.
Keywords: ethics and economics; Plato; Amartya Sen, capabilities
JEL: A12; A13; B11, B31.
1
[1] Refereed paper to be presented at the Australian Conference of Economists, 10-14 July in Canberra.