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Metaeconomics Defined
What is Metaeconomics?
Metaeconomics is an empathy-based, science- and humanities-grounded alternative to mainstream Microeconomics. Instead of assuming only ego-based self-interest as in Single Interest Theory (SIT) in Microeconomics, Metaeconomics uses Dual Interest Theory (DIT), which explicitly includes empathy-based shared other-interest as an internal part of human behavior.
What is Dual Interest Theory (DIT)?
Dual Interest Theory (DIT) holds that human behavior arises from two interacting motivations: ego-based self-interest (relating to Incentive) and empathy-based shared other-interest (holding the Ethic). Economic stability depends on balancing ego and empathy, self and other(shared)-interest, incentive and ethic—rather than privileging one over the other.
How does Dual Interest Theory (DIT) in Metaeconomics relate to Adam Smith?
Adam Smith emphasized that moral sentiments—the Ethic—must temper self-interest. Metaeconomics formalizes Smith’s insight using modern behavioral science, treating Smith’s two major works as one integrated argument: Wealth and Sentiment, Self and Other(shared)-interest, Incentive and Ethic. The Ethic is essential for tempering the Incentive, and therefore for economic efficiency and market viability.
Writing convention?
In Metaeconomics, the symbol “&” is used deliberately to emphasize that paired terms are joint, interdependent, and nonseparable, not merely additive. Expressions such as ego & empathy, self & other(shared)-interest, wealth & sentiment, and incentive & ethic denote co-arising drivers of human behavior and economic outcomes, consistent with Dual Interest Theory (DIT). Where “and” appears, it carries this same strong meaning; the use of “&” simply makes the jointness more explicit.
Metaeconomics (met′ə ē′kə näm′iks) n. 1. an economics that broadens rational economic choice to include the moral and ethical dimension within a shared other-interest, an economics which sees the ethic within the human, a kind of humanomics. 2. an economics that sees it is human nature to seek and balance a dual interest represented in a more primal ego-based self-interest which is tempered by the empathy-based other(ethics based, shared with others, yet internalized within own-interest). 3. an economics positing that individuals seek to maximize own-interest which involves maximizing a joint self & other-interest, in effect, balancing the Profane & Sacred. 4. an economics seeing the virtue of prudence at the core of the more primal self-interest, the Profane --- and the core of the other-interest reflecting the other virtues, the Sacred, as represented in temperance, justice, courage, faith, hope and love 5. an economics that sees the central role of liberty, freedom and independence of the individual person, but yet seeing the equally essential human need for connection with the other in common cause. 6. an economics seeing sacrifice in both domains of interest as essential to maximizing the own-interest.
MetaEcon (met′ə ē′kə n) n. 1. A person who does Metaeconomics. 2. A person who views economic questions through the lens of dual interest theory. 3. A person who recognizes the dual nature of human nature, with ego a primal driver which must be tempered by empathy in order to achieve the mental stability represented in homeostasis. 4. A person who sees the key role of self-control in finding and maintaining the homestatic balance in ego & empathy. 5. A MetaEcon contrasts with a NeoClassEcon, a person framed as a Neoclassical Economist, who uses single interest theory in Microeconomics.
Further dimensions of the definition of Metaeconomics, pointing further to how a MetaEcon frames economic questions:
7. seeing an empathy economy in terms like that described in Adam Smith's theory of moral sentiments, i.e. imagining oneself in the state of others in the community (and the ecosystem within which the economy and community is embedded) and as a result tempering one's own internalized pursuit of self-interest, as in a joint pursuit of Wealth & Sentiment. 8. an economics that recognizes the essential need for joining in empathy with (i.e. evolve a shared ethic in a moral and ethical community), and internalizing it within the other(shared with others)-interest, 9. an economics seeing the potential for value O emerging in Other Forums beyond price P in the Market Forum, 10. an economics seeing O generally not commensurable with P, so O ---> P, as in the moral and ethical system in the Community influencing the price in the Market, and P ---> O, as the Market influences the Community. 11. seeing the possibility for values emerging on terms greater than the sum of the parts, as described by synergism arising in the interaction and feedback between egoistic-hedonistic and empathy-sympathy, ego & empathy, self & other-interest, Profane & Sacred pursuits 12. an economics based in philosophical pragmatism rather than in the traditional utilitarian philosophical base of microeconomics 13. an economics recognizing inherent connectivity with the individual and the economy, both being embedded within the social and natural (Spaceship Earth) system 14. an economics seeing explicit consideration of the content of the moral community within an ethical system as a main focus of the policy process in a liberal and humane democracy based capitalism, and thus giving analytical content to the metaphor of the invisible hand 15. an economics pointing to the visible hand as the way to ensure the best ethical moral and ethical content is embedded in the invisible hand, 16. a humanistic economics, going beyond Bentham and back to Adam Smith to make for a virtuous commercial society, 17. an economics changed in form, altered, transformed while building upon both thermodynamic (spaceship-earth system, ecosystem) and humanistic principles.
Related Metaeconomics Concepts
This topic is part of the broader Metaeconomics framework, which uses Dual Interest Theory (DIT) to integrate ego-based self-interest and empathy-based shared other-interest in support of stable, efficient, and humane economic systems—formalizing insights anticipated by Adam Smith. For concise definitions, terminology, and links to related concepts, see the Metaeconomics FAQ hub: https://www.metaeconomics.info/faq-frequently-asked-question