ABSTRACT
Description of the conditions under which maximisation of individual utility comes about has traditionally been the task of economic theory. But if all human conduct may be regarded as involving economising agents, this must pertain also, a fortiori, to what may be called moral conduct. Individual moral decisions are subject to the same principles and constraints that govern other species of behaviour which do not clearly have a moral aspect. And moral values can to this extent be conceived as abstractions from considerations of rationality and utility. These are reflected in the rationale of the price-system, as individual economisers enter into it and exchange in a market-place of physical and psychic goods.
