Abstract
An environmentalist's outlook is typically claimed to be based on or even constituted by sound science. It would be natural then for a version of economics based on such insights to claim to be 'even more' scientific than traditional economics. I argue for a conclusion radically opposed to this. I suggest that a genuinely green economics will/should eschew any claims to scientificity. I aim to liberate economics from the albatross of scientific ambition. I urge greens not to try to legitimate their aspirations for the world and for society principally by means of science, but rather to embrace green economics as a point of view that has at its heart an endless love of and faith in life. I submit that economics is not science, but rather philosophy, and that a Green political philosophy of life will suffer, and not profit, from pretending otherwise.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 307-325 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | International Journal of Green Economics |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 3-4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2007 |
Keywords
- Friedman
- Green
- Mirowski
- Physics
- Political economy
- Utility