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Money, Economic Order & The Problem of Moral Responsibility

Shahrabi Farahani, Sajjad | 2023

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 56261 (42)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Philosophy of Science
  6. Advisor(s): Taqhavi, Mostafa
  7. Abstract:
  8. In the history of philosophy, the discussion of moral responsibility is tied to "Free Will" metaphysical controversies. Philosophers generally expect that people have "alternative possibilities" -that require them not to be bound to a deterministic situation- or if they don't have such possibilities, at least be able to "control" their actions, and if they don't know all aspects of what they do, at least not to be in ignorance about that, according to Aristotle. In the case of having such minimal possibilities, it is that one can be considered morally responsible for his or her actions. This broad conception of moral responsibility can be traced from Aristotle's discussions in the Nicomachean Ethics to the discussions of contemporaries such as Peter van Inwagen and Harry Frankfurt, regardless of their disagreements. But in the economic world, where the decisions of economic actors are always tied to uncertainty and sheer ignorance -because they are utterly unaware of what they do not know- and sometimes with consequences beyond their control, how can moral responsibility be "possible"? To solve this problem, firstly, I will demonstrate, according to Hayek, the difference between spontaneous order and made order. Secondly and after recognizing the Market as a spontaneous order, I will distinguish between the perfect knowledge on the one hand, and the adequacy of tacit knowledge of actors (for their moral responsibility) on the other hand. But emphasizing on the adequacy of tacit knowledge of economic actors and beyond that emphasizing on the impossibility of any "perfect" knowledge about any economic phenomena requires a methodological discussion that I will investigate in the second chapter. After providing this methodological basis, in the third chapter I will discuss about the ontology of "money" and "capital", and based on that will demonstrate that the "monetary" equilibrium -which needs elimination of political interferences in the monetary system- is essential for the coordination of preferences of producers and consumers, which is indeed the necessary and sufficient condition for their moral responsibility. Since we will see that "intervention" creates an epistemological problem for economic actors, we will come to the conclusion that democratic solutions will not be enough to prevent governmental interferences to stop macroeconomic disturbances. That's where we see "monetary competition"; and the alternative currencies become essential for the "possibility" of an actor's moral responsibility. On the other hand, since technological advances, especially in the field of Blockchain, have provided new possibilities for the supply of alternative money, so in the third chapter, I will discuss the relation between money and technology and demonstrate that 1. Alternative monies should be the result of a "capital structure"; which is coordinated with consumer preferences, and in this sense, those monies can be considered as technology. 2. Based on Ihde's post-phenomenological approach in the Philosophy of Technology, "good money" -in addition to requiring the adaptation of the technical structure to the functions of "money"- also depends on the economic actors’ perception of alternative money. In fact, the post-phenomenological approach can improve our perception of alternative money by empowering us to distinguish the different roles that money plays in the mediation of human-world relations and by enabling us to understand the different moral consequences of its mediating roles. This is the final and most fundamental step that I will take in this Master Thesis to formulate Moral Responsibility in the realm of Economic Order
  9. Keywords:
  10. Spontaneous Order ; Intervention ; Technology ; Money Market ; Human Action ; Moral Responsibility

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