Open AccessHow to Handle Trade-Offs in Pandemics
Author(s) -
Krister Bykvist
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
erasmus journal for philosophy and economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 1876-9098
DOI - 10.23941/ejpe.v14i1.609
Subject(s) - mistake , pandemic , work (physics) , law and economics , economics , political science , sociology , positive economics , covid-19 , law , engineering , medicine , mechanical engineering , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Pandemics and other similar crises force us to make difficult moral trade-offs. It is tempting to think that this challenge should be met by invoking fundamental moral principles. This is a mistake. Instead, we need to work hard at designing institutions that enable the officeholders to make reasonable decisions under both fundamental ethical disagreement and empirical/evaluative uncertainty. It is argued that this is best done by supplementing the ethical-cum-legal platforms already in use with an ethical framework inspired by social welfare theory.