Toward a diachronic conception of well-being: Thoughts from Georgescu-Roegen

In the first part of this paper, we revisit some concepts proposed by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. Without attempting an overall interpretation of Georgescu’s reflection, and without any intent of philological completeness, we want to show the strength and the suggestiveness of some of his insights, with the aim of setting a conception of human well-being that is intrinsically permeated by subjective time. We argue that an important part of human well-being simply depends on our being able to live-in-time. The Georgescu-Roegen’s conception of personal time as an irrevocable flow of living suggests that the right perspective in analysing the use of time made by persons in their never-ending search of well-being is a diachronic one. In the second we discuss the consequences of adopting a diachronic perspective in the study of relationships between time use and well-being and try to suggest a coherent empirical approach.