Economics, Description, Prescription

When Mill attempts to contrast 'higher' from 'lower' pleasures, he betrays one of his most important insights--the distinction between Description and Prescription.  Still, even with that lapse, he is more conscientious in that respect than either Capitalists or Marxists have tended to be.  For, the various representations from the former of Economic behavior do not even address the question of whether such conduct should be amended.  Likewise, while the criticism from the latter of Capitalist exploitation is plainly normative, the complementary assertion that the rectification of it will necessarily transpire according to the laws of History is descriptive.  To avoid such conflations, an Economic Theory that includes both types of proposition must begin with some Normative principle derived from a more general Moral doctrine; then, develop a model of Economic behavior based on that principle; and, finally, apply that model to assess and, if warranted, to suggest corrections for, described extant practices.  In such a project, ideological orientation is transparent from the outset, and debates like that over theory of Market Value are, from, the outset, subordinated to a more general context.