Articulating the social role of the economist: A synthesis of Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of education and John Maynard Keynes’s economics

This chapter explores the ethical education of economists. English philosopher and scientist Alfred North Whitehead’s influence on John Maynard Keynes’s economics is well established. What has received less attention is Whitehead’s metaphysically based philosophy of education and how it can be used to ground instruction of Keynes’s economics while centering the ethical role of the economist, as envisioned by Keynes. This essay documents Whitehead’s metaphysics and theory of education and Keynes’s argument for the role of the economist as dentist for the political economic body; a role that includes the ethical nature of the economics profession in designing policies and institutions that enhance the economic dimensions of human life. These arguments are connected with (social) constructivist pedagogy for the purpose of identifying specific learning activities that are effective vehicles for the ethical education of economists.