Economy and Virtue
29 March 2005
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The moral case for the market economy
This volume, edited by Dennis O’Keeffe and with a foreword by David Willetts, explores the relationship between virtue, morality and alternative forms of economic organisation. It should be read by anybody who is interested in the relationship between morality and economic order.
Despite the obvious success of the market economy in generating wealth, many commentators accept this success only grudgingly, and unthinkingly criticise the moral underpinnings of capitalist societies. Economy and Virtue takes such critics on and finds their criticisms wanting. It analyses how a free society both relies on and promotes values. Unless people can choose between good and evil in conditions of freedom, there is no morality in performing an action that helps another person. A market economy promotes cooperation and restrains selfishness because it relies on contracting by consenting parties, and because its legal system protects the property rights of the vulnerable, just as it does the property rights of the powerful.
The authors argue that we cannot judge the market economy by observing the obvious process of ‘getting and spending’, because this process alone tells us nothing about the motives and character of those involved. There is much more to the market economy than material acquisition: the eminent authors in this volume discuss lucidly and convincingly the moral justifications of the market order.
Contents:
Economy and Virtue by Dennis O’Keeffe
The Arguments for Free Markets: Morality versus Efficiency by Walter Williams
The Morality of Markets: Taxation as a Prisoner’s Dilemma by Christopher Badcock
Selfishness, Exploitation and the Profit Motive by Antony Flew
Economic Science and the Morality of Capitalism by Israel M Kirzner
Freedom and virtue: the social structure of morality by David Marsland
Below the Angels: Morality and Capitalism by Arthur Shenfield
Individual Responsibility and Competence by Peter King
Markets, the Internet and Morality by Sean Gabb
Capitalism and corruption: the anatomy of a myth by Dennis O’Keeffe
2004, ISBN 978 0 255 36504 8, 200pp, PB
See also:
Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy by Philip Booth et al.
Power Against People: A Christian Critique of the State by Philip Vander Elst.
Download Chapter 4.
Download Chapter 5.
Despite the obvious success of the market economy in generating wealth, many commentators accept this success only grudgingly, and unthinkingly criticise the moral underpinnings of capitalist societies. Economy and Virtue takes such critics on and finds their criticisms wanting. It analyses how a free society both relies on and promotes values. Unless people can choose between good and evil in conditions of freedom, there is no morality in performing an action that helps another person. A market economy promotes cooperation and restrains selfishness because it relies on contracting by consenting parties, and because its legal system protects the property rights of the vulnerable, just as it does the property rights of the powerful.
The authors argue that we cannot judge the market economy by observing the obvious process of ‘getting and spending’, because this process alone tells us nothing about the motives and character of those involved. There is much more to the market economy than material acquisition: the eminent authors in this volume discuss lucidly and convincingly the moral justifications of the market order.
Contents:
Economy and Virtue by Dennis O’Keeffe
The Arguments for Free Markets: Morality versus Efficiency by Walter Williams
The Morality of Markets: Taxation as a Prisoner’s Dilemma by Christopher Badcock
Selfishness, Exploitation and the Profit Motive by Antony Flew
Economic Science and the Morality of Capitalism by Israel M Kirzner
Freedom and virtue: the social structure of morality by David Marsland
Below the Angels: Morality and Capitalism by Arthur Shenfield
Individual Responsibility and Competence by Peter King
Markets, the Internet and Morality by Sean Gabb
Capitalism and corruption: the anatomy of a myth by Dennis O’Keeffe
2004, ISBN 978 0 255 36504 8, 200pp, PB
See also:
Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy by Philip Booth et al.
Power Against People: A Christian Critique of the State by Philip Vander Elst.
Download Chapter 4.
Download Chapter 5.
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