UTILITARIANISM, DEONTOLOGY, AND VIRTUE ETHICS: CONVERGING OR OPPOSING ETHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMICS?

Neoclassical economics is based on classical utilitarianism - the value of an act (also regarding the consumption of goods) is determined by its utility. Economics is often criticized for this ethical foundation. Critical voices come, among others, from those researchers who prefer virtue ethics. They claim that the market operates on the basis of instrumental rationality and external motivations, and, as a result, actions that have an autotelic value, often resulting from the internal motivations of market players, lose their significance. The advocates of virtue ethics believe that neoclassical economics tries to invalidate the category of virtue, thus preventing a full use and development of human abilities. Another ethical system, often opposed to utilitarianism, is deontology, or ethics of duties and obligations. The article tries to answer the question whether the conflict between utilitarianism and virtue ethics is inevitable or it is only apparent because the market rewards in fact virtuous actions. Also, a reflection on the proper understanding of the two ethical systems mentioned here is offered and their role in economic theory is analysed.