Using Agent-Based Models for Ethical Prescriptions

We propose to use Agent-based models (ABM) for estimating trend consequences of following concrete ethical prescriptions in impersonal social relationships. We discuss the potential and limitations of this methodology and its utility for the many sources of ethical prescriptions in our society--among them, university courses in professional and corporate Ethics, CSR, Sustainability and the like.
We follow an Aristotelian conception of Ethics, where the goodness of a prescription results both from its relation to principles and from its expected consequences. ABM allows to enrich the knowledge of expected consequences in contexts defined with generality similar to the intended by the prescription. Thus, they may contribute to improving the discernment of ethical prescriptions.
For demonstration, we develop a basic example of ABM for the study of commutative justice in a stylized market. The basic elements of that model can be found in the Appendix. In the main text, we derive some hypotheses from such ABM, and propose several ways for further confirmation or refusal of those hypotheses.

We propose to use Agent-based models (ABM) for estimating trend consequences of following concrete ethical prescriptions in impersonal social relationships. We discuss the potential and limitations of this methodology and its utility for the many sources of ethical prescriptions in our society--among them, university courses in professional and corporate Ethics, CSR, Sustainability and the like.
We follow an Aristotelian conception of Ethics, where the goodness of a prescription results both from its relation to principles and from its expected consequences. ABM allows to enrich the knowledge of expected consequences in contexts defined with generality similar to the intended by the prescription. Thus, they may contribute to improving the discernment of ethical prescriptions.
For demonstration, we develop a basic example of ABM for the study of commutative justice in a stylized market. The basic elements of that model can be found in the Appendix. In the main text, we derive some hypotheses from such ABM, and propose several ways for further confirmation or refusal of those hypotheses.