Part of the difficulty of introducing social economics into the principles course is the perception that social economics is anathema to mainstream economics. 1 As noted by Warren Samuels, however, "neoclassical economics is already a form of social economics" despite its "pretensions of methodological individualism and value-neutrality" [Samuels, p. 2]. Heilbroner also makes the case that the ...

There are two competing approaches sustainability in agriculture. One stresses a strict economic approach in which market forces should be allowed to guide the activities of agricultural producers. The other advocates the need to balance economic with environmental and social objectives, even to the point of reducing profitability. This paper shows how the writings of the 18 century moral philo...