‘Systems of values’, ‘ethical systems’, and sustainability. The economic social ‘entity’ values

Abstract

The paper aimsto explore the relationships between ‘ethical systems’ and ‘systems of values’, offering
also semantic and epistemological issues from which ethics cannot be divorced. Although ethics is a branch of
philosophy that has its roots in ancient Greece, it experienced a remarkable revival in recent decades not only in
philosophy but also in the social and applied sciences. And this deserves wider recognition and appreciation. A
considerable amount of ethical thinking can be found in the current and previous literature of economia
aziendale, entity economics, general economics, management, and social philosophy. Ethical principles are
coextensive with principles of rational behavior and all ethics are contextual in the sense that surrounding
circumstances, environmental conditions and situations are involved.
The reference to science and mathematics for ethical arguments partially depends on methodology based on a
postulated outside ‘natural world’ with statistical relative uniformities. Behavioral economists and management
scientists prefer, as primitive foundations, scientific methods with their observations and prediction of economic
and sociological relative regularities. The ‘received view’ that language itself conditions all aspects of reality
includes now the topic that persuasion and rational arguments can support ‘ethical systems’.
Realization of common welfare is a prerequisite for establishing a ‘master values system’ and for meeting the
‘specifics’ which compose ethical principles. The historical research and anthropological analysis are necessary
for constructing suitable ‘system of values’ for every entity, economic and not.
The coordination of specific ‘systems of values’ and directives is a necessary condition for social welfare.
Consequently, any society must compose every kind of conflicting ‘values systems’ and ends into a coherent
framework. Neoclassic economics traditionally neglected ‘environmental and social issues’. Different variations
of environmental ethics have been developed; beyond many questions, there are the issues of cause and remedy
of the global as well as local ecological crisis. To-day, in times of crisis and pandemia the market paradigm is
exhausted, it does not meet the ‘ethics of reciprocity’. In socialist economics exchanging goods at their ‘socially
necessary labor cost’ would operate as a satisfactory surrogate. Also, entity economics does not completely
escape the labor value identification of classical economics.