Ecological economics and human ecology

Abstract

While economic theory has been enormously influential since the eighteenth century, the cultural, political and ethical dominance it has gained in the last few decades is unprecedented. Not only has economic theory taken the place of political philosophy and ethical discourse and imposed its own concepts and image of society on other social sciences, it has also redefined the natural sciences as nothing but instruments of production, investment in which is to be judged ill tenus of profitability. No longer does economics justify its claim to be a science on its supposed success at modeling itself on physics: on the contrary, it stands in judgment of physics and demands of physicists that they justify themselves in economic terms. Literature and the arts have also been redefined, as part of the entertainment industry, also to be judged in tenus of profitability and contribution to GNP. Rationality itself has been redefined by rational-choice theorists to accord with the economists' model of economic choice within the market. There is no common good, participation in the pursuit of which could give meaning to people's lives; according to rational-choice theorists there is only the satisfaction of diverse individual subjective preferences (Amadae 2003, Iliff.)