Economists, Ethics, and Exemplars

Abstract

Economists have provided multiple pictures of how human beings’ aims work. Some have claimed that preferences are identical between all human beings. Others propose desires are in some measure under the desirer’s own control. I propose that the contemporary moral theory of exemplarism provides a way to combine the advantages of these views while allowing economists to have empirical input into moral discourse. Furthermore, the previous views imply their own particular defenses of free societies, and I argue exemplarism does as well. I articulate an argument that out of tradition-based, planning-based, and market-based societies, market-based societies best permit the freedom necessary for moral exemplars to arise. In the process of exploring this argument, I flesh out some of the details of how human beings change themselves that are left out of earlier accounts.