Postscript on Ontology and Economics

Abstract

The proper domain of the discipline of economics then is the study of the ways and means with which individuals and groups decide what they should do to secure the material conditions of a worthwhile life. The requirement that the application of the theory must result in bringing about a worthwhile life rather than the maximisation or optimisation of any single issue also means that its tenets should be open to critical assessment on the basis of incommensurable considerations. Theories that lead to the degradation of human dignity or the environment will not do even if they satisfy the criteria of some algorithm. They are inadaquate not only because they are morally objectionable, but, more broadly, because they are ontologically deficient, that is to say, they fail to set out an adaquate picture of human reality.