Interest in Aristotelianism and in virtue ethics has been growing for half a century but as yet the strengths of the study of Aristotelian ethics in politics have not been matched in economics. This ground-breaking text fills that gap. Challenging the premises of neoclassical economic theory, the contributors take issue with neoclassicism's foundational separation of values from facts, with its treatment of preferences as given, and with its consequent refusal to reason about final ends. The contrary presupposition of this collection is that ethical reasoning about human ends is essential for any sustainable economy, and that reasoning about economic goods should therefore be informed by reasoning about what is humanly and commonly good. Contributions critically engage with aspects of corporate capitalism, managerial power and neoliberal economic policy, and reflect on the recent financial crisis from the point of view of Aristotelian virtue ethics. Containing a new chapter by Alasdair MacIntyre, and deploying his arguments and conceptual scheme throughout, the book critically analyses the theoretical presuppositions and institutional reality of modern capitalism.
Contents: Introduction, Andrius Bielskis and Kelvin Knight. Part I The Virtue Critique of Capitalist Economy: The irrelevance of ethics, Alasdair MacIntyre; Neoliberalism and its threat to moral agency, Bob Brecher; Economics as ethical pre-condition of the credit crunch, William Dixon and David Wilson; Is Aristotelian capitalism possible?, Rajeev Sehgal. Part II Polemicising the Critique: Equality, vulnerability and independence, John O'Neill; No place to hide for the moral self: bureaucratic individualism and the fate of ethics in modernity, Peter McMylor; Reappraising neoliberalism: homo economicus, practitioners and practices, Mustafa Ongun; The great perverting transformation, Niko Noponen. Part III Alternatives to Capitalist Economy: Goods, interests and the language of morals, Piotr Machura; Formalising functions: the history of a passing challenge to capitalist economy, Kelvin Knight; Towards a critical ethical economy, Russell Keat; How is ethical revolution possible?, Buket Korkut Raptis; Anti-capitalist politics and labour for the twenty-first century: history and future challenges, Andrius Bielskis. Index.
