Ecocentrism, Economics and Commensurability

www.ecologicalcitizen.net EDITORIAL Ecocentrism, economics and commensurability “Whatsoever is not conscious of itself and discipline, committed in some basic, Adam not master of itself is a thing. Whatever fundamental way to anthropocentrism? is conscious of itself and master of itself Certainly, the latter thought is encouraged Dickerson is a person. […] Man alone is a person; by passages like the one quoted above About the author minerals, plants and animals are things. from Léon Walras’s great founding text Adam is a philosopher who From the rational point of view, the of neoclassical marginalist analysis, the has taught at universities purpose of things is under the dominion Éléments d’économie politique pure (4th in the UK and Australia. of the purpose of persons. […] If there edition, 1899). But perhaps passages like He is the author of Kant were only one man in the world he would this, extolling human mastery over non- on Representation and be master of all things.” human nature, are inessential to economics Objectivity (Cambridge University Press, 2004) (Walras, 1954: 62)1 proper; perhaps they are of no more and various papers in relevance to economics than Newton’s philosophy, aesthetics, occultism is to the theories of classical and cultural history. he discourse of economics – at least mechanics. in its orthodox, ‘neoclassical’ form, That would certainly be the mainstream Citation as taught to tens of thousands of view, in which economics is conceived of Dickerson A (2020) T Ecocentrism, economics university students every year – wields as a ‘positive science’ whose relationship and commensurability. The tremendous institutional, and therefore to ethics is easily stated. According to this Ecological Citizen 3(Suppl B): social, power. One very significant form view, ethics sets the ends (or goals) and 5–11. that that power takes is via the centrality economics studies the most efficient means of quantified cost–benefit analysis to to achieve those ends. This conception Keywords government policy making around the is expressed, for example, in Lionel Ecological economics world. Consider, for example, the rules Robbins’s famous definition of economics for policy formulation laid down in the as “the science which studies human UK Treasury’s ‘Green Book’, or by the behaviour as a relationship between ends US’s little-known but powerful Office of and scarce means which have alternative Information and Regulatory Affairs.2 In uses” (Robbins, 1935: 16). It’s a conception each case, the possible forms that policies that is central to the self-understanding can take, and which policies are adopted of mainstream economics, and that is and which rejected, hinge on the outcomes found, in various formulations, repeated of cost–benefit analyses. The result is that, in textbook after textbook. On this view, whilst experts in the field (such as climate economics is the systematic study of the scientists or ecologists) may receive a most efficient means to achieve any given hearing in policy formulation, the last word end. The rational principles of efficiency on the matter often goes to the economists. – getting more output from less input Given this influence and power, it is – are, it is claimed, able to be theorized essential for us to ask whether there could and described independently of the be an ecocentric economics – and what it specification of any end. might look like. Ecocentrism is an ethical If this view is correct, then economics is stance built around the proposition that not intrinsically anthropocentric. Indeed, other-than-human nature possesses on this conception, it makes no ethical intrinsic value. Is that ethics compatible assumptions, and is thus compatible with economics? Or is economics, as a with any ethical stance whatsoever. An The Ecological Citizen Vol 3 Suppl B 2020 5 EDITORIAL www.ecologicalcitizen.net ‘ecocentric economics’ would therefore that which produces the greatest exchange not be a distinctive approach to economics; value at the lowest cost. it would simply be economic reasoning in This is precisely the conclusion reached the service of ecocentric ends. From this by Ludwig von Mises in his post WW1 debate perspective – of economics as the ethically with Otto Neurath over the possibility of neutral science of instrumental rationality rational economic planning in a socialist – a polity could choose to set ecocentric economy. Drawing on his experience as a goals as its ends, and then economics would war time economist, Neurath (2005) had help to work out the most efficient means to argued that economic planning could achieve those ends. and should be done ‘in natura’ – that is, However, things aren’t that simple. Even in terms of the actual quantities of real this very abstract account of economics things involved (so much iron ore, so much – as the systematic study of efficiency in copper, so much timber, so many hours of means – already implicitly embeds a human labour, etc.). In response, von Mises substantive ethics. Namely, it presupposes argued that although very simple cases It is precisely this “ an anthropocentrism, in which humans are can be compared using in natura measures, commensurability conceived of as the ‘masters of all things’. any matters of real complexity can be that gives economics To see why this is the case, let us consider rationally compared only through the use so much of its an artificially simple case. Suppose there of market-discovered prices. “Without are two different processes for producing such assistance,” von Mises writes, “in the institutional power; a given material good. Which of the two bewildering chaos of alternative materials what so often gives is more efficient? In order to make this and processes the human mind would be at it the ‘last word’ in judgement, we need to see which process a complete loss. Whenever we had to decide battles over policy involves a smaller quantity of inputs (given between different processes or different formulation. the assumption that both processes centres of production, we would be entirely ” produce an identical output). If the inputs at sea” (1951: 118). to a production process were all of one Von Mises’s response to Neurath has homogenous type, then this comparison since become part of the received common- would be easy. But this is not the case, for sense of mainstream economics: that any production process will involve many rational assessment of efficiency demands heterogeneous inputs. One process may the use of price as a common metric. In involve a certain amount of skilled labour turn, this entails that all values (at least, all time, while the other may use more labour values of relevance to economic planning) time but at a lower skill level. One may rely are commensurable.3 on a small amount of capital in the form It is precisely this commensurability that of simple machines, while the other may gives economics so much of its institutional involve much more complex machinery. power; what so often gives it the ‘last The two processes will use up different word’ in battles over policy formulation. quantities of resources (including energy) For commensurability seems to hold in the production of the good, and will out the promise of a purely technocratic produce different waste products that will mode of governance – in which the need to be dealt with in different ways. apparent objectivity of a cost–benefit Now, given the variety of inputs to the analysis replaces all the messiness and two processes, how are we to judge which inconclusiveness of politics and ethics. For is more efficient – that is, which one uses if all values are commensurable through less inputs in order to produce the good price, then it might seem that all economic as an output? In order to rank the two decisions can be made – indeed, are most processes in this way, it seems that all the objectively and properly made – via cost– complex inputs of each process need to benefit analysis. be valued using a common measure. This Hence, commensurability can appear common measure is, of course, exchange to entail that, rather than having to sort value or price. The most efficient means is out conflicts between different values 6 The Ecological Citizen Vol 3 Suppl B 2020 www.ecologicalcitizen.net EDITORIAL through the usual human practices practices, contracts, and so on) that are in of argument, persuasion, compromise, place. However, what has occurred here et cetera, collective decision making can – and what is really underpinning that become a technical exercise in accounting. protest – is that the pricing is not merely This is attractive to the bureaucrat, who an explicit recognition or revelation of an can then appear to govern in a way that is underlying value that ‘had been there all purely a technical, algorithmic exercise, along’ (only implicitly). To assign a price outside of politics and ethics. And it suits to something – whether via a market those who want to see the socio-economic mechanism or in some other way, such as a status quo maintained, because of the way Pigovian tax on ‘externalities’ like pollution it excludes the public by making policies – is to transform the relationships we have that systematically benefit the wealthy to that thing; it is to form a different moral appear to be matters decidable only by community. experts – preferably from behind a screen The commensurability thesis is intrins- of mathematics. ically anthropocentric. For the valuation of The There are many ways of criticizing this nature is given by us (human beings) – by our “ commensurability claim of universal commensurability preferences, by our willingness-to-pay-for or by price. For example, there are various our willingness-to-accept-compensation- thesis is intrinsically technical criticisms that could be, and have for. Other-than-human nature has no anthropocentric.” been, made of the methods (contingent say in this (cf.

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