Call of duty: rethinking the relationship between economics and ethics in teaching – walking in the footsteps of Albion Small

Abstract

This paper argues that economics education needs to be underpinned by a new ‘system of ethics’ whose goal is to help students achieve a better understanding of today’s global challenges. Given the absence of a single universal truth in ethical matters, this ‘system of ethics’ combines Weber’s ‘ethics of conviction’ and ‘ethics of responsibility’ in a way that aims to instill in students ‘attitudes’ in reference to global ends and social values as advocated by Albion W. Small. An ethical approach to economics education forces us to consider relations of power in economic activities and, for that reason, to recognise that the production and distribution of economic resources is a matter of justice. It forces us to consider the question of what kind of society we want and how we can improve the common good. This new ‘system of ethics’ to be promoted in economics curricula requires economics professors to answer a ‘call of duty’ which should be reflected by their teaching methodology and course contents. I use courses dealing with money and finance as an example to showcase this new ‘system of ethics’.