Resuming the discussion concerning the role of values in sciences

is the dominant economic theory axiologicaly neutral?

Abstract

Among the traditional problems in Epistemology, one of the most persistent controversies is the question of value insertion versus value exemption inscience. The philosopher Hugh Lacey, in consonance with a long critical tradition, advances a sharp examination of the foundations of science andits interaction with society, questioning the traditional notion of scientific neutrality. In this essay we intend to extend Lacey’s criticism to the socialsciences – specifically to Economics. We argue that modern economics orthodoxy (the neoclassical theory), by the adoption of the mechanical paradigm of classical physics and all the analytical instruments of the materialist strategies, does not represent a type of neutral understandingof the economic phenomena, but instead, a particularly considerable manifestation of the predominant values of the (capitalist, technological, industrial and liberal) society of which it is a part. So, we intend to show that also in the social scope, the favoring of the nomological and quantitative aspects of reality mirrors social values highly regarded in modern societies.