The Theory of Ethical Economy in the Historical School, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1995 Wilhelm Roscher, Lorenz von Stein, Gustav Schmoller, Wilhelm Dilthey and Contemporary Theory Ethical Economy Series

The Historical School of Economics develops a historical theory of the economy and of business ethics. It investigates the ethical and cultural determinants of economic behaviour and economic institutions and forms an ethical and cultural theory of economics and business and the origin what, in the present, is called "institutional economics". Being one of the first comprehensive studies in the English language of the German "Historical and Ethical School of Economics", the book presents the theory from Wilhelm Roscher to Gustav Schmoller, the foundations of historism and the humanities of Wilhelm Dilthey and their present relevance. It also makes visible which impact the Historical School has for the foundations of contemporary business ethics and the cultural theory of the economy.

Economics as Ethical Economy in the Tradition of the Historical School. Introduction.- One The Older Historical School.- 1 Intention and Failure of W. Roscher’s Historical Method of National Economics.- 2 “Personality” as a Principle of Individual and Institutional Development Lorenz von Stein’s Institutional Theory of a “Labour-Society”.- Two Schmoller’s Contribution to Economics and Economic Ethics.- 3 A Methodological Appraisal of Schmoller’s Research Programm.- 4 The Role of Ethics as Part of the Historical Methods of Schmoller and the Older Historical School.- Three Wilhelm Dilthey’s Foundations of the Historical and Cultural Sciences.- 5 Dilthey’s “Verstehen” Sociology, Philosophy of Culture, and Ethics.- Four Cross Analyses of the Historical School: Historism in Italy and Japan.- 6 Historism and Liberalism in Italy.- 7 Historism and Liberalism in Japan.- Five Systematic Questions of Historism and Social Science in Contemporary Thought.- 8 Institutional Economics, Management Science and the Historical School.- 9 In Search of a Theory Gustav Schmoller on Economic Justice: A Guide to Present Problems in Business Ethics?.- 10 Theoretical Approaches to a Comparison of Economic Systems from a Historical Perspective.- 11 Confucian Culture and Economic Development in East Asia.- 12 Communitarianism, Pragmatism, Historicism.- 13 Is Postmodernism a Neohistorism? On the Absoluteness and the Historicity of History.- 14 Historism in the German Tradition of Social and Economic Thought or: What Is Living and What Is Dead in Historism.- List of Authors and Discussants.- Index of Names.