7 - Implications

Summary

We have addressed two central questions regarding the moral conditions of economic efficiency. We answered the first question by establishing that a population of strict rational egoists cannot achieve efficient allocations of commodities through market interaction in the absence of moral normative constraints. We answered the second question by specifying a system of moral normative conditions, which is necessary and sufficient for economic efficiency.

Clarifying the role of moral normative constraints in the achievement of economically efficient outcomes of trade required a refinement of concepts and rigorous analytical tools. In this chapter, I first briefly review and discuss these concepts and analytical tools. I then focus on some results of this analysis that are important for economics, legal theory, political theory, and moral philosophy.

Concepts and Analytical Tools

Normative Social Practice

I use the term normative social practice to elucidate the concept of morality as a social phenomenon. This allows us to distinguish its referent from the referents of cognates like David Lewis's convention and Andrew Schotter's social institution. Moreover, the concept is heuristically valuable for moral philosophy and for research involving ethical considerations.

Right to Autonomy

A right to autonomy is a necessary condition of normative social practices and is a moral right. This concept avoids some of the ambiguity of related terms such as freedom, liberty, and autonomy, thus providing more precision in the analysis of legal, moral, political, and economic questions that trade in such concepts.