Moral Science and Moral Order

by Buchanan, James M.

• ISBN13: 9780865972452
• ISBN10: 0865972451
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Liberty Fund

Summary

This volume presents a representative sampling of James M Buchanan's philosophical views as he deals with fundamental problems of moral science and moral order. As one might expect, Buchanan always goes back to fundamental principles first. From there, his observations and conclusions range far and wide from his own discipline. The thirty essays collected in MORAL SCIENCE AND MORAL ORDER are divided into these categories: methods and models; belief and consequence; moral community and moral order; moral science, equality, and justice; contractarian encounters. In his foreword, Hartmut Kliemt says, "The British and Scottish Moralists of the Enlightenment period would have felt very comfortable with James Buchanan. Like them, Buchanan may be seen as a 'man of letters' who concerns himself with fundamental problems of moral science and moral order. But, also like them, Buchanan is not a secondhand dealer in old ideas. On the contrary, taking as inspiration classical philosopher-economists (in particular, Adam Smith), Buchanan not only proposes new applications of the neoclassical economic paradigm, he also addresses, in innovative ways, fundamental issues of his discipline and beyond." Kliemt's lengthy foreword highlights some of the major philosophical currents with which Buchanan is engaged in the papers collected in this volume. His introduction to these philosophies provides an excellent grounding for economists and all readers who may not be familiar with the philosophical and fundamental issues Buchanan undertakes.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Methods and Models
Economics and Its Scientific Neighbors	3	(21)
The Domain of Subjective Economics: Between Predictive Science and Moral Philosophy	24	(16)
The Related but Distinct ``Sciences'' of Economics and of Political Economy	40	(15)
Rational Choice Models in the Social Sciences	55	(16)
An Ambiguity in Sen's Alleged Proof of the Impossibility of a Pareto Libertarian	71	(9)
Choosing What to Choose	80	(16)
Law and the Invisible Hand	96	(14)
On Some Fundamental Issues in Political Economy: An Exchange of Correspondence	110	(32)
James M. Buchanan
Warren J. Samuels
Economic Analogues to the Generalization Argument	142	(4)
James M. Buchanan
Gordon Tullock)
Monetary Research, Monetary Rules, and Monetary Regimes	146	(7)
Belief and Consequence
The Potential for Tyranny in Politics as Science	153	(18)
Belief, Choice and Consequences: Reflections on Economics, Science and Religion	171	(16)
Moral Community and Moral Order
Moral Community, Moral Order, or Moral Anarchy	187	(15)
Moral Community and Moral Order: The Intensive and Extensive Limits of Interaction	202	(9)
A Two-Country Parable	211	(4)
Economic Origins of Ethical Constraints	215	(20)
Moral Science, Equality, and Justice
Political Economy and Social Philosophy	235	(16)
An Individualistic Theory of Political Process	251	(15)
Constitutional Democracy, Individual Liberty, and Political Equality	266	(15)
Equality as Fact and Norm	281	(16)
Political Equality and Private Property: The Distributional Paradox	297	(14)
Fairness, Hope, and Justice	311	(42)
Contractarian Encounters
Rawls on Justice as Fairness	353	(7)
A Hobbesian Interpretation of the Rawlsian Difference Principle	360	(19)
The Matrix of Contractarian Justice	379	(24)
James M. Buchanan
Loren E. Lomasky)
Notes on Justice in Contract	403	(12)
The Libertarian Legitimacy of the State	415	(14)
Utopia, the Minimal State, and Entitlement	429	(8)
The Gauthier Enterprise	437	(22)
Constructivism, Cognition, and Value	459	(10)
Name Index	469	(4)
Subject Index	473