For-Profit Business as Civic Virtue

Journal of Business Ethics 106 (3):313-324 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

According to the commonsense view of civic virtue, the places to exercise civic virtue are largely restricted to politics. In this article, I argue for a more expansive view of civic virtue, and argue that one can exercise civic virtue equally well through working for or running a for-profit business. I argue that this conclusion follows from four relatively uncontroversial premises: (1) the consensus definition of “civic virtue”, (2) the standard, most popular theory of virtuous activity, (3) a conception of the common good widely shared by liberal political philosophers, and (4) the mainstream economic theory of for-profit business

Similar books and articles

A Liberal Theory of Civic Virtue.Robert Audi - 1998 - Social Philosophy and Policy 15 (1):149.
Segregation and Civic Virtue.Michael S. Merry - 2012 - Educational Theory 62 (4):465-486.
Civic Friendship and Thin Citizenship.R. K. Bentley - 2013 - Res Publica 19 (1):5-19.
A pragmatic defense of some liberal civic virtues.David H. Jones - 1992 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 30 (2):77-92.
Virtue theory as a dynamic theory of business.Surendra Arjoon - 2000 - Journal of Business Ethics 28 (2):159 - 178.
Introduction: Civic Virtue and Pluralism.Bert Van Den Brink - 2001 - Philosophical Explorations 4 (3):152-156.
Neo-republicanism and the civic economy.Richard Dagger - 2006 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 5 (2):151-173.
J. G. A. Pocock's republicanism and political theory: A critique and reinterpretation.Ian Shapiro - 1990 - Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 4 (3):433-471.
Profit Motive.Joakim Sandberg - 2013 - In Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Wiley-Blackwell.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-08-16

Downloads
1,151 (#9,704)

6 months
97 (#36,790)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jason Brennan
Georgetown University

References found in this work

On Virtue Ethics.Rosalind Hursthouse - 1999 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The Ethics of Voting.Jason Brennan - 2011 - Princeton Univ Pr.

View all 21 references / Add more references