The ‘Eclectic’ deficit: Philosophical and ethical responses to the 2008 financial crisis in France
Tóm tắt
In the context of the recent financial global crisis, the disparity in functionality between a view of the ‘economy’ as an accurate and abstract unit of measurement by which to monitor progress and the ‘real economy’ as an equally verifiable site of economic exchange and value has never been more distant. In France, the recent Stiglitz report that President Sarkozy commissioned to evaluate socio-economic progress in the aftermath of the crisis acknowledged the limitations of PIB (‘produit intérieur brut’=GDP) as a measurement by which to take account of the diverse elements that constitute social and economic well-being. The report highlighted specifically the distortions inherent in this method of measurement and recommended the need for greater recognition and incorporation of ‘subjective realities’ into economic forecasting. This acknowledgement of the relevance of subjective data (personal circumstances, illness, depression, anxiety, loss, happiness, and so on) has formed part of a growing consensus emerging particularly among leading French economists who have called for a more eclectic approach to economic analysis. The disconnection between ‘economy’ and ‘real economy’ has opened a divide between hegemonic, objective neo-liberalism and human subjectivities of courage and virtue, localism and ethical solidarities (what we can call the ‘lived’ economy). Eclecticism in this context bridges the gap between the abstraction of economics and the insights offered by disciplines such as philosophy and ethics. This article charts a trend in this eclectic approach, in particular an ethico-philosophical trend (in thinking and discourse) in relation to the economic that underpins the experience of the lived economy. The article points to ways in which philosophy and ethics invite us to think about our social and economic well-being in the aftermath of crisis. It highlights how these subjectivities can impact as action and practice in daily life and how they can affect the eclectic deficit by extending the frame of economic reference to include ethical knowledge from other disciplines. Specifically, the philosophical ethics of Paul Ricoeur and, to a lesser extent Alain Badiou, are invoked to underline the fact that agency is not only critical in our understanding of ethics but offers a telling alternative to the preoccupation with the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of ethical action and practice.
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