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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:18:43 2006 |
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----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
Rod Hay wrote:
"There are any number of "values." Not just use and exchange. Value is a
judgment. It is easy to invent a large number of different criteria for
judging a thing or an action."
To refer to "values" as purely matters of judgment and therefore subjective
is the basis of the neoclassical dichotomy between positive and normative
economics. It ignores the reality of an economic society in which our
shared moral principles as Adam Smith would say, form the foundation of
even a market society. Without those moral judgments emerging from a
'framework of social reciprocity' [Keith Tribe's words in his JEL 1999
article] value in use and value in exchange will not have operational
meaning. For example, we disdain the production of use values by a drug
dealer and ignore the fact that the price of the drug may be totally
justified by the conditions of demand and supply. So I would like to
suggest that we adhere to 'values' as a matter of necessity and usually
agree on the accepted norms of the time. And of course they change with the
passing of time.
Feminist economists theorize that the emphasis on keeping science in
general and economics in particular value-free is an exercise in self
deception. I would like to recommend: "Value-Free or Valueless? Notes on
the pursuit of Detachment in Economics" by Julie A. Nelson, HOPE 25:1,
1993.
Best,
Sumitra Shah
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