Ethics is the basis of social and political thought (or "philosophy") and social and political thought are rigorously expressed in testable fashion in sociology and political science. Social systems are normative since people exhibit values and disagree over values. This is a cognitive (subjective) condition that has behavioral expression.
Subjects act at least in part using values as norms and these norms functions as motivators and shapers of action. One aspect is the nature and function of norms in regulating behavior individually and socially, and another is the consequences of following different sets of norms. These two aspects engender many issues that have been debated for millennia.
In addition to consequentialist ethics there is another type of ethics called deontological ethics that asserts that certain norms are given as fundamental values, such as duty, or as God's will expressed in codes of conduct as divinely ordained instructions. This is also a consequentialist ethics of a sort also to the degree that supernatural reward and punishment are involved.
Thus virtually all norms involve the form, if you do such and such, then the consequences will be so and so. From this it follows that if you want so and so, do such and such, and if you don't want so and so, don't do such and such. Broadly speaking, this is the basis of an approach to ethics that presumes people act rationally and take consequences into account as the chief motivator of action. How this in fact works cognitively and behaviorally is a matter of scientific enquiry, and how it should work is matter of ethical (philosophic) enquiry.
Economics either presumes an approach such as utilitarianism, as does neoclassical economics with utility maximization,derived from Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, or constructs an approach on philosophical grounds, as did Ludwig von Mises in Human Action.
Keynes took a more romantic in addition to rational approach in positing the important of "animal spirits," that is the role of emotion, in determining behavior, and acknowledging the role of uncertainty in decision making.
"Romantic" is a technical term here, meaning feeling as opposed to reason. Reason is the cognitive influence on volition and feeling is the affective influence.
Rationalists hold that reason is the chief factor in motivation, and romantics that feeling is the chief motivator. Most hold that some combination of the two is operative and in different proportions in different personality types. But extreme rationalists hold that reason is completely dominant, and extreme romantics hold that feeling is completely completely dominant.
Abraham Maslow launched a more rigorous psychological approach that was not as rigid as Skinner's behaviorism, bringing in a range of motivators and their ordering in a "hierarchy of needs." Cognitive and behavioral economics are now investigating motivation using the methods of their fields. Cognitive and behavioral studies suggest that Keynes was on the right track with "animal spirits," but that he did not go far enough. These endeavors seek be rigorous in the scientific sense.
On the other hand, political economy is based on the application of values and norms to policy formulation. Here, specifically ethic (philosophic) issues arise that are related to ideology instead of science, that is, to "ought" and "should" instead of "is." Then the question become one of criteria and their justification. The fundamental question is whether there are universal criteria that provide an absolute standard for moral judgment morally.
As Lord Keynes says, "Ethics is never far from the surface of discussions of economics, especially practical economic polices."
Social Democracy for the 21st Century
Thoughts on a Version of Consequentialist Ethics
Lord Keynes
