In contemporary orthodox economics, statements directly referring to the issues of ethics appear quite rarely, yet the breakdown of the economic performance in 2008 undoubtedly led to an increased interest in the ethical dimension of economic activity. Nevertheless, economists still somewhat unwillingly engage in discussions on the subject of ethical questions, even when those issues seem to be playing a significant role in the processes occurring at an economic level. The expression used in the title of the chapter ‘economist as preacher’ would possibly sound very worrying to most modern representatives of this science. It seems, however, that the problem of fulfilling or not fulfilling the role of preachers by economists calls for deeper consideration, and regardless of the final conclusion it is worth discussing what the underlying factors of the lack of greater interest in ethical issues on the part of orthodox economists are.

The starting point for the deliberation are the reflections by George J. Stigler, the author of the already cited phrase ‘economist as preacher’, that were presented in a series of lectures from the beginning of the 1980s and published in a collection of essays compiled under a common title Economics or Ethics?

Economist as preacher. What does it really mean?

In order to settle the debate whether economists really do not fulfil their function of preachers it needs to be defined precisely what adopting such a role entails. In this place one has to refer to the explanation presented by Stigler, although he himself warned that his approach does not profess to be precise. Nonetheless, it should be noted that through ‘preaching’ he understood ‘a clear and reasoned recommendation (or, more often, denunciation) of a policy or form of behaviour by men or societies of men’ (Stigler 1982, 3).

The precision of the presented definition may indeed leave much to be desired, because in the first place there is no mentioning of the scope and subject of the recommendations in question. With such a broad formulation, being a preacher would involve to all intents and purposes putting forward claims considering any sphere of life (as long as they are ‘clear and reasoned’). Indicating the subject of advising/preaching remains inexplicit. One may still presume that if such a role was to be resumed by economists, their advice and suggestions to a greater or lesser degree should refer to economic life.