International political economy and the question of ethics

Abstract

Once we have become fully aware of our intellectual tradition with its deep 10 split between head and heart and its not always beneficial consequences, the first step toward healing that split has already been taken.Downthe road, it is then possible to visualise a kind of social science thatwould be very different from the one most of us have been practicing: a moral social science where moral considerations are not repressed or kept apart, but are systematically 15 commingled with analytic argument, without guilt feelings over any lack of integration; where the transition from preaching to proving and back again is performed frequently and with ease; andwhere moral considerations need no longer be smuggled in surreptitiously, nor expressed unconsciously, but are displayed openly and disarmingly (Hirschman, 1981: 305–6)