An empirical support of Schopenhauer's ethics: A dynamic panel data analysis on developed and developing countries

Abstract

This paper covers all main theoretical features of Schopenhauer's ethics (i.e., life satisfaction arising from art, compassion based on virtue of justice or virtue of loving, and compassion leading to asceticism) in an analytical model, it translates this analytical model into a statistical model by referring to empirical variables (i.e., household expenditures in recreation and culture for art, the Gini index for compassion based on virtue of justice; percentages of people nationally defined as poor for compassion based on virtue of loving; percentages of believers in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism; governmental enrolments and expenditures in primary, secondary and tertiary education; and inter-generational equal access to Earth resources for compassion leading to asceticism), and it estimates this statistical model by using panel data at a country level for 99% of the world's population (i.e., 18% in 34 OECD developed countries and 81% in 128 non-OECD developing countries) from 2000 to 2020. Statistical results about reliability show that Schopenhauer's ethics is supported by observations (i.e., all predictions are confirmed within an each individual perspective with reliable variables depicting compassion based on virtue of justice, Christianity, and primary education) and it can explain the observed decreasing life satisfaction within an average individual perspective (i.e., believers in developed countries are showed to be decreased from 86% to 73% and compassion based on virtue of justice, art, and tertiary education turn out to be reliable). Mathematical results about feasibility show that some reliable principles of Schopenhauer's ethics can compensate for the decreasing life satisfaction at a cultural individual level (i.e., compassion based on virtue of justice, Christianity) and some of its reliable principles can compensate the decreasing life satisfaction at a representative individual level (i.e., compassion based on virtue of justice, art). Therefore, the methodological contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it provides an example of interdisciplinary science (i.e., contextual rather than topical, abductive rather than inductive, observational rather than experimental). Second, it highlights (theoretical and empirical) synergies between social (behavioural) sciences and (moral) philosophy: Schopenhauer's ethics turn out to be not only a normative philosophy (i.e., it suggests individual behaviours) but also a positive philosophy (i.e., it explains individual behaviours), within its virtue approach; Schopenhauer's ethics can explain the observed dynamics of life satisfaction at global level, if an utilitarian rather than a virtue approach is adopted.