PLEASE NOTE: Registration is not required for this event. Click above to join the meeting (Zoom meeting ID: 884 1074 5499 / Passcode: 377405 )
Event begins at 2PM BST (3PM CEST).
Part of a workshop series on 'Economic Paradigm Change', collaboratively hosted by The Global Solutions Initiative, THE NEW INSTITUTE, Prosocial World and INET Oxford.
In this session, George Ellis, University of Cape Town, will present his work on Economics, Society, and the Pre-eminent Role of Values. This is followed by a moderated discussion.
Abstract: This talk proposes that the interaction between social, economic, political, and legal systems can be characterised as a multilevel societal feedback control system, in analogy with the way homeostatic systems work in biology. A complex interaction between rationality, emotions, values, and perception shapes individual and social actions, with values being shaped by a circular interaction between individuals and society, and narratives being a powerful way of understanding. Key features are a characterisation of the core nature of social and individual values as lying on a spectrum from totalitarian to self-sacrificial; the distinction between claimed and empirical values leading to the idea of ethical dissonance; and consideration of how this all works out at different organisational levels. The talks claims that meaning and values are a preferred aspect of causation at many social levels and particularly at the meso-level, contrary to reductionist viewpoints based in physics, evolutionary theory/genetics, neuroscience/psychology, or what some economists may say.