Publication Details

Abstract

The status of ethics in economic behavior is a new issue in our philosophy. In the countries with a developed market economy it is, however, one of the most burning questions of the discussion. The aim of the paper in its first part is to approach moral norms as a specific way of the economic behavior regulation. In its second part the mainstream modern theories concerning the relation between ethics and economics are presented. In the third part the possible contribution of ethics in the domain of economic decision-making is outlined. The authors point is that a law defining the general rules of the market agents' behavior says nothing about moral standards intervening in economic decision-making. On her view the ethics with its norms and value standards allows for the transcending the traditional, costs-benefits pattern of reasoning. She, therefore, sees the ethics as an important attribute of economic decision-making.