ABSTRACT
We discuss ethics with respect to economics given the existence of both structural instability and structural inertia. Rationality is defined in relation to the agents’ apprehension of the context of the choice, which means that we separate the production space as defined only for the positive orthant; in other words, produced things and services always exist as positively defined items. In contrast, the utility/preference space is defined over both positive and negative orthants. This means that the macroscopic optimality never will coincide with the sum of microscopic optimal states. These results will be discussed in relation to Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, which we will interpret according to common interpretations of logical paradoxes. This implies from an ethical point of view that ethics at the microscopic level by necessity will be separated from ethics at the macroscopic level.
We will discuss necessities and choice possibilities of the consumer with respect to the concept of lexicographic preferences and with respect to production. We will show the necessity of underpinning the macroscopic analysis with a structural analysis of the microscopic structures. This will lead to the potential ethical conflict between human inventive and innovative skills and the desire for stability.
