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Markets and Medicine: Adam Smith and John Gregory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2016

Robin Downie
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Abstract

It is generally assumed that transactions in a free market are based on self-interest. It is equally assumed that transactions between doctor and patients are aimed at the interests of the patient and in that sense are benevolent, fiduciary or based on trust. Influential statements of these positions derive from Adam Smith and from Smith's neighbour and contemporary John Gregory. Examining the views of Smith and Gregory but moving the issues into a contemporary context this paper will argue that the opposition of self-interest and benevolence is misleading and that in the modern world medicine and the market have a similar ethical framework.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 92 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 503 - 517
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2016 

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References

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