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Characterizing Virtues in Finance

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Abstract

In this article, we shall attempt to lay down the parameters within which the practice of the virtues may be enabled in the field of finance. We shall be drawing from the three main sources, Aristotle, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and MacIntyre, on which virtue ethics is based. The research question is what ought to be done for financial activities to truly contribute to eudaimonia or human flourishing (Aristotle), to the achievement of three distinct kinds of goods as required of virtue, “those internal to practices, those which are the goods of an individual life and those which are the goods of the community” (MacIntyre), and to “[help] man on the path of salvation” in the midst of complex network of relationships in modern societies (CST). These parameters could then be taken as conditions financiers ought to fulfill in order to live the virtues in their work and across different life spheres.

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Notes

  1. See Epstein (2002, p. 3), “the increasing importance of financial markets, financial motives, financial institutions and financial elites in the operation of the economy and its governing institutions, both at the national and international levels”; Stockhammer (2004, p. 720), “the increased activity of non-financial businesses on financial markets”; Kripner (2005, p. 174), “a pattern of accumulation in which profits accrue primarily through financial channels rather than through trade and commodity production”; and Palley (2007, p. 2), “a process whereby financial markets, financial institutions and financial elites gain greater influence over economic policy and economic outcomes”.

Abbreviations

CA:

Centesimus Annus

CSDC:

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

CST:

Catholic Social Teaching

CV:

Caritas in Veritate

EG:

Evangelii Gaudium

NE:

Nicomachean Ethics

QA:

Quadragesimo Anno

SRS:

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis

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Correspondence to Ignacio Ferrero.

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Sison, A.J.G., Ferrero, I. & Guitián, G. Characterizing Virtues in Finance. J Bus Ethics 155, 995–1007 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3596-1

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