Abstract

CALVO, Patrici. Ethical and emotional questions on economic egoism. Inv. Econ [online]. 2018, vol.77, n.304, pp.102-134. ISSN 0185-1667.

Self-interest is the main postulate of the orthodox economic theory. It is a perspective that takes root in the psychological egoism of the 17th century, which opens out to economic thought through the works of authors like Bernard Mandeville and Joseph Butler in the 18th century, and which has found its place in economic science with the marginalist revolution and the subsequent appearance of the Neoclassic School in the second half of the 19th century. Nonetheless, in its traditional evolutionary and neuronal version, the Game Theory has spent decades showing a completely different behavioural reality of the economic agent: one that is motivationally heterogeneous and morally compromised. Therefore, the objective of the present study is twofold: on the one hand, to show how the egoistic perspective for economy comes about, is specified and develops; on the other hand, elucidate the behavioural perspective that underlies the latest neuroeconomic studies.

Keywords : egoism; prosocial emotions; ethics; homo oeconomicus; neuroeconomy; reciprocity; moral virtues; B1; C7; C45; D6; D87.

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