ECONOMICS AS A MORAL SCIENCE: MENGER VS. KEYNES?

As known, Menger endorses a typically Weberian thesis: Economics should be conceived as a value-free science. On the contrary, Keynes seems to argue that economics should be considered a moral science. This paper intends to prove a) a possible compatibility at the epistemological level and b) an agreement even at the ethical level. For these reasons, this paper is structured in two parts: 1) The first part examines the two 'competing' models in order to argue that a) the Mengerian model does not entail hostility against the ethical evaluation on economics and b) the Keynesian model does not mean that theoretical economics should be considered as epistemologically dependent upon a given system of moral precepts. 2) The second part intends to highlight that the epistemological agreement is linked to a similar standpoint in ethics: the common rejection of the love of money.