Ethics and Economics

Fall Term

Professor: doc. Ing. Tomáš Cahlík, CSc.

Office hours: by personal arrangement Contact: [email protected]

Credits: 3U.S. credits Course Code: JEB004 Course Description:

This course is interdisciplinary: topics on the border of economics and finance, ethics, methodology and philosophy of economics are covered here. By the end of this course students will be able to discuss ethical questions linked with economics and finance. There are no required prerequisites for this course, but solid background in economics is necessary to enjoy it.

Course Objectives:

Structure:

The structure of this course is divide between lectures and seminars

Instructions:

Please contact the UPCES-IEF staff to learn more about the instructions for this course, including meeting times and how to register.

Requirement

Written midterm exam (30%), written final exam (30%), homework (40 %): comments, discussion questions and discussions on required readings (expected are about two pages for each homework). There: in the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th week.

Academic Honesty

Although the students are encouraged to exchange ideas in and outside class, everybody submit their own work. That means that copying the work of other students or published materials is but solid background in economics is finance, ethics, methodology and philosophy of economics are covered here. By the end of this course students will be able to discuss

Please contact the IEF staff to learn more about the instructions for this course, including meeting times

Course Content:

The main objective: 1. By the end of this course students will be able to discuss ethical questions linked with economics and finance.

Supporting objectives: 2. Presentation of ethics as practical philosophy, that pushes us to think about what is the right thing to do

3. Presentation of basic frameworks that have been developed for coping with this question in Western thinking since Plato

4. Introduction to philosophy of economics

5. Survey of methodology of economics Seminars stress the fulfillment of objective 1, mid term exam, home works and the final exam stress the fulfillment of objectives 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Reading Materials:

Bertrand Russel - The Elements of Ethics (in the fair-use repository) John Stuart Mill - Utilitarianism (in the fair use repository)

Pre –liminary Schedule:

Week 1 Lecture: Introduction to the course. Institutions, organizations and ethics. Ethics as practical philosophy. Basic research directions and forms of ethics (AR-2). Seminar: Moral reasoning. Utilitarianism and Jeremy Bentham.

Required Reading: Plato: Crito

Week 2 L: Introduction to philosophy of economics. S: Cost-benefit analysis. John Stuart Mill. Required Reading: Max Weber: Politics as a Vocation

Week 3 L: Basic Notions: Life. Freedom and Power - Competition, Rivalry, Hate. Manners and Morality, Relativity and Relativism, Decision Making and Responsibility. (JS-2.2 to 2.6) S: Libertarianism. Robert Nozick. Required Reading:

Week 4 L: Basic Aspects and Areas of Ethics. Economic Ethics as Subfield of Social Ethics. (AR - 3). Social Ethics in the Context of Social Sciences. (AR - 4). S: Natural Rights. John Locke. Required Reading: Aristotle (or some stoic?)

Week 5 L: Basic Approaches I: Equilibrium. Golden Rule. Categorical Imperative. Happiness - from Aristotle to Utilitarianism. (JS - 3.1, 3.2) S: Moral Limits of Markets.

Required Reading: Adam Smith ́s Moral and Political Philosophy (in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Week 6 L: Basic Approaches II: Honour and Conscience. Autonomy and Heteronomy. Good and Evil. Moral Sense. (JS - 2.1, 3.3 to 3.5, AR - 5) S: Freedom. Duty. Categorical x Hypothetical Imperative. Imanuel Kant.

Week 7 L: Ethical Criteria and their Link to Justice. (JS 4.1-4.3, AR 7) Orthogenesis and Phylogenesis of Rules. Socially-Ethical Maxims. Law and Ethics. (JS 4.4, 4.5, AR 8) S: Debating lying. John Rawls.

Week 8 L: Survey of methodology of economics S: Summary of different approaches towards redistribution.

Week 9 International students write in the lecture time. All other students in the seminar time!

Week 10 L: Ethical Codes. Justice and Fundamental Rights in the EU. Standards and Professional Codes in the Financial Sector - Introduction. S.: Standards and Professional Codes in the Financial Sector - Case Studies. Required Readings: - Justice, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights (on the EU on webpage - human rights) - CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conducts (in the Codes of Ethics Collection) • EU webpage - human rights URL • Codes of Ethics Collection URL

Week 11 L: Economic Schools with Stressed Ethical Dimension : Economics of Trust, Economics of Happiness, Economics of Family. S: Debating Positive Discrimination. Aristotle. Communitarianism.

Week 12 L: Comparison of different economic systems with respect to ethical maxims. S: Debating Same Sex Marriage.

Week 13 Christmas Eve - Enjoy it