The importance of ethics during the period of the formation of economic theory

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to document the significance and influence of ethics during the period of the formation of economics as an independent scientific discipline on the basis of qualitative analysis derived from literary sources and by comparing and reconstructing the findings that were acquired. By working through the literature, we concluded that ethics codetermines a cognitive foundation – the paradigm of economic science – and represents an important source of their internal divergence in the historical development of economic theory. From the methodological perspective, solving the problem as defined presumes that an interdisciplinary approach, including philosophic and historical arguments, is a necessary tool for revealing the ethical sources of economics, their nature, significance, and the practical scope of their expression within economic theory.