A “Ética do Desenvolvimento” como Proposta de Pesquisa Interdisciplinar

• Main Authors: Thiago Fontelas Rosado Gambi, Rossi Henrique Soares Chaves
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade Regional do Noroeste do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul 2017-01-01
• Series: Desenvolvimento em Questão
• Subjects: development; economics; ethics
• Online Access: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=75250552002

The development could be considered one of the fundamental concepts of economics, but it is also one of the most complex. It is fundamental because it addresses the ultimate aim of economics as a social science, i.e., the improvement of living conditions of the people. It is because its importance, and despite the difficulty of study it, that the discussion of this text deals with development conceptions thought from moral philosophy or ethics. The first goal of this discussion is to see how the concept of development changes over time, from the history of economic thought. The second part of the discussion deals with the proposal of "ethical development". The methodology used in the research consists basically in literature review, with emphasis on the founding texts of the proposal, written in the 60s and 70s by Joseph-Louis Lebret and Denis Goulet. Some of the most recent contributions of the 80s, 90s and 2000s, as new works by Goulet, David Crocker and Des Gasper, were also considered. It is argued that ethics might work as a unifying principle of the various aspects of development. In this sense, "ethics of development" would be justified as an interdisciplinary field of study.