Moral markets : the critical role of values in the economy /

Moral Markets challenges the "homo economicus" rational choice framework of mainstream economics with 15 chapters contributed by a team researching the nature of values in economic thinking. Zak (Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Claremont Graduate Univ.) has compiled what may become a starting point for further work on this topic, given the volume's scope and creative insights. After philosophical reflections from Aristotle to Adam Smith on the origin and nature of values, the readings focus on evolutionary processes that form values like fairness and reciprocity. Evidence from nonhuman subjects and millenniums of human history is used to suggest a positive theory of value formation. Several chapters focus on institutions, laws, and public policy that help develop values consistent with human moral emotions. Game theory and experimental economic research are used to show that the social system can thrive when self-oriented behavior is tempered by values. Teleological issues are largely absent in the book because they are viewed as nonscientific though not competing in substance with evolutionary and socially formed values. Virtue ethics and sources like Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue (3rd ed., 2007) are absent from the discussion. Nevertheless, this collection is important in helping to reconsider the value-free claims of economics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. J. Halteman Wheaton College