Moral Education at Work: On the Scope of MacIntyre’s Concept of a Practice

Abstract

This paper seeks to show how MacIntyre's concept of a practice can survive a series of 'scope problems' which threaten to render the concept inapplicable to business ethics. I begin by outlining MacIntyre's concept of a practice before arguing that, despite an asymmetry between productive and non-productive practices, the elasticity of the concept of a practice allows us to accommodate productive and profitable activities. This elasticity of practices allows us to sidestep the problem of adjudicating between practitioners and non-practitioners as well as the problem of generic activities. I conclude by suggesting that the contemporary tendency to regard work as an object of consumption, rather than undermining MacIntyre's account of practices, serves to demonstrate the potential breadth of its applicability.

Navigating Between the Plots: A Narratological and Ethical Analysis of Business-Related Conspiracy Theories (BrCTs)

“…Is history somehow repeating itself here with BrCTs? Business ethicists have debated how, for instance, virtue fits into business (Whetstone 2001), the notion of character is sometimes misused (Solomon 2003 ), CSR “can be equated to the practice of the virtue of mercy” and should be part of the practice of justice (Arjoon 2000 , p. 172), and whether business consists of a MacIntyrean practice—one that is based on excellence—or depends too much on effectiveness instead of excellence (Beadle 2008 ; Moore 2005 ; Sinnicks 2019b ). Given the findings, it seems conspiracists could discard all these academic discussions based on a few statements that they hold to be true.…”

From Harmony to Conflict: MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics in a Confucian Tradition

“…While he maintains that certain business activities such as those in the financial sector can "never be a practice" (cited in Wyma 2015; see also MacIntyre 2015), he has recently provided an example of industrial production which meets the demands of his definition of a practice in the Cummins Engine Company (2016, p. 172; see also Beadle 2017). Thus, he seems to have accepted the proposal originally made by Moore and Beadle (2006), and expanded on in Sinnicks (2017), that any organization housing a genuine practice may be re-described as a 'practice-institution combination. '…”

“We Ought to Eat in Order to Work, Not Vice Versa”: MacIntyre, Practices, and the Best Work for Humankind

“…Mei (2019) notes that many accounts of meaningful work fail to properly address the question of what makes work meaningful and why, but Beadle and Knight's MacIntyrean account of meaningful work understands "work as meaningful to the extent that both products and practitioners are judged by internal standards of excellence" (2012, p. 438). Virtues are obviously meaningful, so to locate the meaning of work partly in its capacity to morally educate, a concept discussed in the context of MacIntyre's work by Sinnicks (2019), is to meet Mei's worry 1 . Because of this, MacIntyre's concept of a practice is well-suited to illuminating discussions of meaningful work (for instance Beadle 2017cBeadle , 2019Breen 2007Breen , 2016.…”