ABSTRACT
We all know that there is a duality in life's impulses, a nobler and a more debased element, and that we need to cultivate the one and not the other. We all have a conscience, and know guilt when we do not listen to it. Our materialism needs to give way to the old virtues such as prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, according to E.F. Schumacher in Small Is Beautiful. 6 Virtuous character is still a proper end of humanity. We need a science that treats people as holistic individuals with a structure of human needs and an inborn potential for higher levels of living and more meaningful lives, and we need a culture and polity that promotes that. A science of revealed preference is indeed impoverished.
