Metaeconomics Metaeconomics "...the first bourgeois society in northern Europe dealt in the virtues of love, prudence, and justice as much as in rye and nutmeg. So we do still, though we have become embarrassed to say so (McCloskey, D. The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006, p. 292).
"What is required for an ethics is, of course, a conscientious moral agent, a virtuous person. Kant himself said this. In his reflections on anthropology he praised "the man who goes to the root of things," and who looks at them "not just from his own point of view but from that of the community, " which is to say (wrote Kant), der Unpartheyische Zuschauer, which as it happens, is precisely the German translation of Adam Smith's ideal character from whom all virtues are said to flow, the impartial spectator." (McCloskey, 2006, pp. 321-322)
"How selfish so ever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is pity or compassion, the emotion which we feel for the misery of others"(Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, quoted in Solomon, 2007, p. 64, who adds: "Without compassion (sympathy), there would be no foundation and no motivation for ethics."
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Metaeconomics, by characterizing economic behavior this way, also suggests an alternative analytical engine consistent with recognizing both autonomous (pursuing self-interest; seeking mastery) and homonomous (seeking unity-with; relatedness) tendencies in a dual-motive human nature. This is to say, it recognizes motives arising from both the survival of the fittest individual and the fittest group, seeing a kind of synergistic interaction between the two scales. Metaeconomics posits that humans are likely both egoistic-hedonistic and empathetic-sympathetic (i.e. "in sympathy with") at the same time: As a result, individuals seek integration and balance during the pursuit of their internalized, joint self-interest and shared other-interest. Metaeconomics also recognizes this joint pursuit of two interests oft as not goes on in a heteronomous (outside-governance, controlling) environment, with both the ecosystem and the social system asserting influence and, perhaps too often, excessive control over the individual. So, during this joint pursuit individuals are seeking various degrees of freedom from outside-governance while at the same time seeking unity with objects; with nature and the ecosystem more generally; and with others in common causes, ideologies and theologies... guided by the virtues. A preference for minimal outside-governance (heteronomy) is viewed on a continuum rather than as a dichotomous choice; also, heteronomy (outside-governance) needs to be held to a minimum, operating mainly as sanctions in the background, lest a true integration of self- and shared other-interest within the self, and thus within the group, is not likely to occur. Most fundamentally, metaeconomics differs from microeconomics in that it recognizes the possibility of true self-sacrifice, represented in altruistic acts but also in sacrificing that which arises in such acts... that H. sapiens by nature may be inclined not only to egoism-hedonism but simultaneously capable of empathy-sympathy, yet actions emerging out of egoism-hedonism are just as essential. Both individual prudence and unity-with others (the later entailing temperance, justice, courage, hope, faith, love... being in sympathy with) are virtues, and when both pursued, hold the potential for a good economic system more generally. Metaeconomics sees sacrifice operating in both the self-interest and the shared other-interest domain; ironically, one generally cannot achieve a satisfactory level of one without sacrifice in the other. So, metaeconomics posits mutual sacrifice as an essential feature of mutual gain, with the potential for synergism... sum greater than the sum of the parts... which gives new meaning to the notion of efficiency, now including economic justice and all the other virtues, in markets. It also sees, then, the need for explicit consideration of the need for continual institutional change in the democratic policy process, recognizing institutions as represented in norms and traditions, working rules of organizations, and property relations. It is through consciously considering new institutions that the invisible (hand) becomes visible, and the "magic" of market efficiency can emerge. The policy process in a democratic market economy is largely about making the invisible... the unconscious... visible. Metaeconomics sees leaving the economy to the invisible hand only when the process and outcomes are both good; when there are deviations from what is good (i.e. individuals become "irritated" which is what drives institutional change in the policy process, after Bromley, D.W. Sufficient Reason: Volitional Pragmatism and the Meaning of Economic Institutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), new policies (and institutions more generally) need to be consciously considered, developed and implemented. It also, like McCloskey (2006), sees the need to go beyond the Prudence-Only, Max U (maximum profit, maximum utility) perspective on individual economic behavior, to see the complexity that is actual human nature, seeing the need for integration of Prudence-Only with Justice and Temperance, along with Courage, with all conditioned by Love, Hope and Faith.
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Is it really new? Speculation Why "meta"? Why What Inspired the way it is formulated?
Is it still focused on the intraperson-interest, the I-interest, like microeconomics? Yes! See I-Thou
Why the concern with "going beyond" the self-interest? Rationality More scientific? Behavioral Economic Science
What is metaeconomics? See Bullets, Brief Overview or Nutshell
What is the nature of the ongoing research? Working and Published Papers. Example application: New insights into the Recycling problem. (for the Notes on each slide, click here).
How do others join in this quest for a metaeconomics? Joining Participate in a dialogue? ListServ Discussion
What is the approach/ what are some applications? Approaches/ Applications. Musings.
What are other scientists doing in related areas? (Reviews of Buber, Cory, Elster, Etzioni, Frank, Frankfurt, Frisch, George, Granovetter, Khalil, Lutz, Schelling, Sen, others: This part is under development. Also see Inspired section).
Related Links: Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics. International Association for Research in Economic Psychology. Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics.
If you have material you would like linked to this page, send e-mail to: University office: glynne1@unl.edu or Home office: glynne@neb.rr.com