Economics,Ethics and Thanatology: Lessons from the Ancients |
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Authors: | Donald G. Richards |
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Affiliation: | Department of Economics, Indiana State University, 279 Holmstedt Hall, Terre Haute, IN47809, USA |
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Abstract: | The normative presuppositions motivating rational choice decision-making based on optimizing objectives amount to a thin account of ethical economic behavior. Ancient thought offers insights that can provide a firmer basis both for personal, individual choice as well as for public policy. After a brief review of Epicurean and Stoic ethical principles, a comparison is made of modern economic and Hellenistic conceptions of rationality and rational behavior. These competing conceptions are then applied to an examination of a contemporary public policy problem, namely health care, particularly as this applies to “end-of-life” issues. The argument concludes that decision-making based on a eudaimonic conception of the good has the potential to provide us with a more efficient health care system as well as one that more satisfactorily addresses the needs of the chronically ill and dying patients who account for a highly disproportionate share of health care expenditures. |
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Keywords: | ethics philosophy death eudaimonia death and dying |
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