Abstract

This article is an attempt at a meta-ethical description of ethics in economic life. First of all, critical rationalism is understood in a meta-objective sense, as a methodological program of philosophy and science; next, it is treated in an objective way as a definite moral principle. This emphasises social experience as a kind of empirical test of theories within the arts and social sciences; therefore, this also confirms standard solutions suggested in the ethics of economic life.Specific issues which arise in this context include the following: the sociological premises of ethics in economic life, the relationships between issues of descriptive economics and the prescriptive aims of general ethics, the principles of qualifying acts within the economic sphere as ethical acts, the operational efficacy of standards formed on the level of the ethics of economic life, the possibility of predicting ethical behaviour patterns in people working in economics.The analysis of the above issues is based on a critical reading and exploitation of the works of Karl R. Popper, the promoter of critical rationalism, as well as Jürgen Habermas, an exponent of critical social theory. Another important source are the works of Florian Znaniecki, the originator and organizer of Polish institutional sociology. His concept of the humane factor is treated here as a key tool in the study of social phenomena.