IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/21161_8.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Thymology, spiritedness, and the social organization of human activity

In: Rethinking Economics as Social Theory

Author

Listed:
  • .

Abstract

This chapter explores the effect that different forms of social and economic organization have on the kinds of lives that people are able to lead. For many years now, TIAA-CREF has sponsored an annual prize for the best treatment of the theme of "lifelong financial security." Security is surely something that is universally valued, or close to it anyway. Or do they? There are many ways in which a lifetime of security can be construed that is unlikely to be universally valued. A lifetime of imprisonment in a low-security prison could be one example. Just as surely as people value security, they surely also value adventure, challenge, and the escape from boredom. Adventure, moreover, can conflict with security. It has long been noted that the first order conditions for a welfare maximum are identical under liberalism and socialism. This identity is highly misleading, as this chapter explains.

Suggested Citation

  • ., 2022. "Thymology, spiritedness, and the social organization of human activity," Chapters, in: Rethinking Economics as Social Theory, chapter 8, pages 125-141, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:21161_8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781802204766.00012.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:21161_8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.