The Good Economy: Vitalism in Aristotle, Cervantes and Bergson, and Economic Justice in Kant and Rawls

Neoclassical theory fails to understand that thereadings of the standard performance indicators in aneconomy heavily depend on the effectiveness and thelatitude of actors in the economy, who are unseen inneoclassical theory. What, then, is the modern theorythat does comprehend (to a degree at any rate) themechanisms generating high innovation, high employ-ment and high participation? Reflection on the classi-cal theory of the good life that originated with Aristo-tle, the vitalism of the French philosopher Henri Berg-son, the individual quest dramatizad by Cervantes andthe theoryof economic justice developed by Rawls,contributes to answering this question. An economycannot be good if it does not produce the stimulation,challenge, engagement, mastery, discovery and devel-opment that constitute the good life. The conclusion isthat a morally acceptable economy must have enoughdynamism to make work broadly engaging and reward-ing; and have enough justice, if dynamism alone can-not do the job, to secure broad inclusion.