This article was originally undertaken at the invitation of Prof. Anne de Bruin as a contribution to the Special Issue on Ethics and Economics of this Journal. Due to illhealth I was unable to deliver it on time.Published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics: 2006. 17 (4): 379-399
Mansour Mohammadian EmeritusProf. of Biology; University of Tehran and Prof. of Bioeconomics;Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales; Universidad Complutense; Madrid.
Mantra of Bioeconomics: Do well for one and do good for others and the planet too.
Abstract
The capitalist socioeconomic neoclassical model suffers from lack of ethical dimension. Humanity and its socioeconomic enterprise are considered separate from nature and Nature s Economy. Humanity’s existence results from its two most important endeavours in biological and socioeconomic activities, which are interdependent andinteractive, that is they are bioeconomic.
Bioeconomics is the science, which results from the synthesis of the empirical science of biology and the humanistic discipline of economics and is founded on the principles of justice, trust and fraternity giving it very strong ethical foundation. In this sense, Bioeconomics is an science; the ethical value of helping and caring for the dispossessed, of economic equality and social equity thus making bioeconomic activity an applied ethical socioeconomic activityBioeconomic ethics is very conscious of social externalities arising from socioeconomic inequality in both developed and undeveloped societies. It has lost faith in the remedial possibilities of “the invisible hand” and believes an ethical attitude such as the holistic bioeconomic ethics is needed to enunciate, loud and clear, that industrial capitalistic economics with its competitive unethical neoclassical market theory has failed. The time is propitious for rebirth of a society to be guided by the bioeconomic ethical cultureto act as a beacon to direct the human enterprise.