Porportionalist reasoning in business ethics

Abstract

Proportionalist reasoning, found in the Aristo­ telian Just War theory, moderates the means taken by reference to the intended (moral) end. However, judging acts by their conformity or otherwise to one normative moral end might, in a liberal society, seem an imposition. Against this objection, I argue, with Spaemann, that values associated with the culture of commerce and its ethical theories are a breakaway from the culture of commitment and virtue that is the only possible framework for ethical reasoning. This commitment is unpacked by MacIntyre through the idea of a social practice and its internal goods. Applied to business, it is work itself, normatively conceived, that is the key internal good.