Honorable Business

Abstract

Abstract Many people are suspicious of business, as well as of markets and commercial society. Are they right to be suspicious? Examples like Enron and Bernie Madoff do not help the impression many have of it as prone to dubious behavior and potentially disastrous negative consequences. But there are bad actors in all walks of life, not just in business. Is there something special about business that encourages, or even rewards, bad behavior? Can there be such a thing as honorable business? While there certainly is dishonorable business, there is indeed also such a thing as honorable business. Honorable business sees as its primary purpose to create value—for all parties. It looks for mutually voluntary and mutually beneficial transactions, so that both sides of any exchange are benefited, leading to increasing prosperity not just for one person or for one group at the expense of others but simultaneously for everyone involved. Done correctly, honorable business is thus a positive-sum activity that can enable flourishing for individuals and prosperity for society. This book offers a conception of what it means for an individual to flourish and what the public institutions are of which honorable business can form an integral part. It also offers original responses to several central objections raised to business, markets, and commercial society. It argues for a new framework for business ethics that articulates the role that the honorable businessperson, and honorable business, can, and must, play in a just and humane society.