ABSTRACT
The purpose of the prologue is to link the present book to earlier books on the anomalies of economic theory; the neoclassical axioms, although seldom referred to, underpin mainstream thinking. This axiomatic structure of neoclassical theory implies a lack of any structural links between agents and commodities. The axioms grant additive aggregation, which makes both agents and commodities appear empty of any real content. This implies that the neoclassical axiomatic form lacks any form of a possible ethical analysis.
Concerning the neoclassical form of barter economy we arrive to: Proposition 1
Assume a system A* consisting of a finite number of subsystems, which are to be regarded as proper classes, s1 … sn. If then we have a measure allowing us to define an optimizing rule both on A* as well as s1 … sn, optimization of the global system A* must imply that at least one of the subsystems si must sub-optimize.
If on the other hand all the subsystems s1 … sn are optimized according to the same optimizing process, the global system A* must sub-optimize. (Ekstedt 2013:83)
Proposition 1 implies a rift between the macroscopic level and the microscopic, and this implies the necessity of an ethical analysis.