Artikel

Het utilitarisme in ethiek en economie: Sidgwick en Harsanyi

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Abstract

Utilitarianism in ethics and economics, with special reference to Sidgwick and Harsanyi - The article explores some specific relationships between economics and ethics. As utiliarianism has been a key reference for economics, this theme is concentrated on here. Sidgwick was a Victorian moral philosopher who also wrote a treatise on economics. We study how he integrates his philosophical insights into his economic work. As a philosopher, Sidgwick investigates the basic methods of ethics, identifying three of them : egoistic hedonism, intuitionism and utilitarianism. After a careful description of common sense morals in an Aristotelean way, using some interesting but disputable methodological principles, he concludes by asserting the superiority of utilitarianism. This will enable him to set up a justification of the capitalist market economy in his treatise on political economy. Harsanyi, on the other hand, is a modern welfare economist who defends a social welfare function that takes a utilitarian form. On the basis of game theoretic insights, he defends a form of rule — utilitarianism. We point to the contrast between Sidgwick’s and Harsanyi’s version of utilitarianism and their use of it in justifying economic theory. While Sidgwick can be characterized as a global intuitionistic utilitarian, Harsanyi is seen to use the axiomatic method in his analytical utilitarianism. This exemplifies the difference between eighteenth century scientific thought and modern science. In the last part we present some major criticisms of utilitarianism. On the other hand, some explanation has also been sought for the fact that utilitarianism still has attractive features.

How to Cite:

Stallaerts, R., (1990) “Het utilitarisme in ethiek en economie: Sidgwick en Harsanyi”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 35(4), 373–403. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95055