| Abstract | In his 1968 speech for the American Economic Association, Kenneth Boulding admonished that the field of economics had departed too far from its origins in moral philosophy. He argued that it had become overrun by mechanistic analysis and theory. Thus, the field of economics has become largely blinded to the moral functionings of society. This paper will address that void using the framework of human action that Boulding himself presented in that speech. This framework involves categories heroic, and economic actors that are each insufficient to form a flourishing community. I will take these conceptions and reformulate them into a humanized model of the heroic actor that I call the heroic person using elements of economics, philosophy, and psychology. This heroic person is unique in her identity, which is neither wholly married to that of the group nor entirely atomistic; her values, which are more diverse than either the deontological values of the heroic actor or the pragmatic values of the economic actor; and her mindfulness which was previously unexplored by the heroic or economic actors. These unique characteristics allow the heroic person to create a flourishing community that cannot be created by either purely heroic or purely economic actors. I will then put the heroic person to the test. By defining prosperity as the marriage of personal well-being, personal health, and environmental health, I will create an econometric model whereby I will put the heroic person alongside the economic actor and the heroic actor to determine whether this framework truly is useful. |
