ABSTRACT
For the most part economists have been inclined to think that self-interested motivations underlie all of economic behaviour. The first principle of economics is that every agent is actuated only by self-interest. According to A. O. Hirschman's classic account of self-interest, the desire to possess more wealth, commodities, or pleasure is politically associated with the need to improve statecraft and the governments' desire for peace, order and stability. One way of thinking about how the relation between self-interested market behaviour and ethics/sociality is constituted is to consider the possibility of ethical limits to market transactions. Social preferences can encompass a wide variety of reasons for behaviour. The existence of non-self-interested motives and their institutional expression are necessary for the flourishing of both the economy and society. In the presence of incomplete contracts social capital and community organization may provide tangible economic benefits even though they also have their costs.
