Homoeconomico-politicus, Scientific Consciousness, and the Defense of Fundamental Values in the Context of the Climate Change Crisis: The Challenge of Scientific Responsibility for the Future of Economic and Political Science
The general framework of this paper is to focus on the evolution of scientific consciousness and the dramatic technological developments it has generated, which have vital and highly consequential consequences for social organization on a global basis. The central fact about the current technologica...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Risk Institute, Trieste- Geneva
2016-05-01
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| Series: | Cadmus |
| Online Access: | http://cadmusjournal.org/article/volume-2/issue-6/homoeconomico-politicus-scientific-consciousness-and-defense-fundamental-values |
| Summary: | The general framework of this paper is to focus on the evolution of scientific consciousness and the dramatic technological developments it has generated, which have vital and highly consequential consequences for social organization on a global basis. The central fact about the current technological revolution is the enormous challenges it provides for political and economic decision-making. The political and economic choices are often merged in a symbiotic wave of challenges. In politics, we have understood the background and challenges that confront homopoliticus. These challenges are even more pronounced as challenges for homoeconomicus. In short, homoeconomico-politicus is both an observer and a participator in the challenges of dramatic technological change. What ties these two concepts together is that they are fed by a form of scientific consciousness. Dramatic forces of change, now unleashed, literally require new paradigms of political and economic thinking to inform wise policy makers about sensible political and economic choices. Both economics and politics are dramatically interrelated and shaped by the philosophy of science known as Logical Positivism. The problem with this approach is that it demands a form of scientific objectivity that rigorously excludes the study of values in the science of politics and economics. But the broader level of scientific consciousness would virtually require that these disciplines adequately account for the value implications of their work.
These generalized comments may be an appropriate introduction to a deeper understanding of the impact of technological changes on the organization of political economy at all levels of social organization from the local to the global. One of the issues that we seek to underscore in this paper is a better understanding of the idea of economic consciousness. It would seem to be obvious that economic consciousness influences economic theory and practice. In this sense, economic consciousness would seek to have a connection to the idea of political consciousness. The two are clearly intimately interrelated. In the field of political science, there is a well-developed theory of the power-oriented personality. When we connect the power-oriented personality to the personality focused on political economy, it may be appropriate to suggest the idea of a marriage of homopoliticus and homoeconomicus. This connection could be expressed in neologism: homoeconomicus-politicus. It is the centrality of the idea of economic and political consciousness that merges these ideas in the form of an inclusive level of consciousness, which we wish to explore. If we accept the idea of homoeconomico-politicus level of consciousness, the next assumption would have to be that this form of human consciousness is obviously influenced by science and the interposition of value-based analysis. These few introductory comments are simply used to raise the question of the role of values in the evolution of the technological capacity in economics and politics of the human family. |
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| ISSN: | 2038-5242 2038-5250 |