Abstract
If social scientists take natural science as a model, they may err in their predictions and may offer facile ethical views. MacIntyre assails them for this, but he is unduly pessimistic about business, and in rejecting the separation thesis he raises some difficulties about naturalism. Aristotle’s views of the good life and of the close relationship between internal and external goods provide a corrective to MacIntyre, and in fact suggest how virtues can support social capital and thus prevail within and among firms in competitive markets. Aristotle’s views are not necessarily inimical to those underlying modern democratic capitalism, but they raise questions about the limits to the good life. The separation thesis misses the importance of addressing the questions with both empirical and ethical resources.
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Hartman, E.M. Virtue, Profit, and the Separation Thesis: An Aristotelian View. J Bus Ethics 99, 5–17 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0745-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0745-9