The COVID-19 pandemic: an economic disaster, a philosophical challenge. A philosophical essay

Fischer, Justina AV (2024): The COVID-19 pandemic: an economic disaster, a philosophical challenge. A philosophical essay. Published in: Inequality and Unemployment in the time of Covid-19. (2024): pp. 19-30.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown policies in the years 2020 and 2021 have exerted economic, social, and psychic implications for most people. The reception by social scientists is almost exclusively a negative one; in this essay, a contrasting, more positive perspective is developed, based on the philosophy of Aristotelian Ethics. The idea is developed that this coronavirus pandemic interrupts and distorts the work-consumption-treadmill, enabling people to live out those talents and capabilities that make people human, lifting them beyond the stage of an animal with only basic needs. This societal development continues under the influence of the energy crisis and the rising inflation in the year 2022.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: COVID-19; happiness; treadmill; philosophy; ethics; capability; Aristotle; A. Smith
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B1 - History of Economic Thought through 1925; H - Public Economics > H1 - Structure and Scope of Government; H - Public Economics > H1 - Structure and Scope of Government > H12 - Crisis Management; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being

References

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