A Research into Identifying Problems regarding the Relations between Ethics and Economics

This study attempts to identify the problems arising from the relations between ethics and economics as they represent two branches of knowledge and two styles of life. In the introduction, I will examine an important historical starting point in investigations into the relations between ethics and economics and also address some significant views of one initiator of this research who believed in the inconsistency of traditional individual ethics (as an individual lifestyle) and economics (as a social/systematic lifestyle). The article follows three steps: in the first step, the common origin of the debate between ethics and economics is explored. In the second step, the concepts used in ethics and economics as two epistemic fields and as two human styles of life (theoretically and practically) are discussed. In the third step, the relations between ethics and economics are examined in terms of moral or economic motives, beliefs, and actions by raising certain central questions. The primary goal of this study is to map out the interdisciplinary crucial issues of ethics and economics for researchers and students. Each of these issues can be a subject matter for research papers or future dissertations. Accordingly, some research topics for future works are suggested.