ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines of certain structural features of a professional ethic, drawing on the notion of an economist’s oath. It provides basic ingredients for the claim that George DeMartino’s argument stands in need of revision. The chapter considers Iris Marion Young’s account of personal responsibility and its implications for economics. It explains how Young’s social connection thesis entails a responsibility to adopt a pluralist stance. The social connection model of responsibility requires that the economist see her profession, and the theory it takes as its explanatory frame, as embedded in a wider social context. Perhaps the most profound implication of Young’s social connection model for professional economic ethics is that it provides reason to think that the pluralist perspective is not only desirable but also required. Talk of an economist’s oath, then, indicates the character of the requirements that DeMartino, and like-minded economists, have in mind when they recommend a professional economic ethic.
