Abstract
This chapter draws on the work of the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre to present a virtue ethics perspective on humanizing business. It begins by setting out the core elements of the relevant aspects of MacIntyre’s work as they apply firstly to human flourishing in general. It then considers the locations in which such flourishing might occur, in particular focusing on MacIntyre’s notions of ‘practices’, and the wider networks of giving and receiving which individuals as human beings are part of. The organizational implications of this approach, in which organizations are understood as practice-institution combinations, is then explored. Understanding organizations in this way helps to see why organizations in general, and business organizations in particular, may frustrate human flourishing through an overwhelming pursuit of what are called ‘external goods’. But it also helps in seeing how the pursuit of two other kinds of goods — ‘internal’ and ‘common’— together with the virtues required for their realization, can lead to human flourishing. A way of thinking of this in practical terms is through what is often referred to as ‘meaningful work’, and the chapter concludes by describing and considering the implications of such work for both individuals and business organizations.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Thomistic’ is used as a shorthand for Thomas Aquinas, a medieval theologian.
- 2.
The International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry, https://www.macintyreanenquiry.org/
- 3.
Common goods can be contrasted with the economist’s notion of public goods which are goods generally provided by the state and enjoyed by individuals qua individuals.
- 4.
As noted above, many though by no means all activities can be characterised as a practice.
- 5.
For a fuller discussion of meaningful work in general, see Moore (2017, 85-88, 91-94).
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Moore, G. (2022). A MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics Perspective on Humanizing Business. In: Dion, M., Freeman, R.E., Dmytriyev, S.D. (eds) Humanizing Business. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 53. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72204-3_3
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