Reprising this from when I read Deirdre McCloskey’s fascinating, intriguing, and wonderfully learned The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce (University of Chicago Press, 2006). Early on McCloskey cites three statistics about progress between 1800 and now: Wealth: “The amount of goods and services produced and consumed by the average person on the […]
Why life is 255 times better now than in 1800 Read More »
My essay “Virtue, Entrepreneurial Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility” has been published in Virtue in Entrepreneurship, edited by Nils Karlson, Mikolaj Norek, and Karl Wennberg (Stockholm: Ratio Institute, 2015). Other contributors include Deirdre McCloskey, Eugene Heath, Art Carden, Lynette Osiemo, Robert Gemmel, David Lipka, Elina Fergin, and Rasmus Nykvist. The book is available in Sweden
*Virtues in Entrepreneurship* anthology published by Ratio Institute Read More »
From May 23-25, I’ll be participating in a colloquium on “Virtues and Entrepreneurship,” organized by Sweden’s Ratio Institute. My talk will be an extension of the theme of my “What Business Ethics Can Learn from Entrepreneurship,” arguing that the success traits of entrepreneurship map onto an updated Aristotelian virtue set. The conference will include keynote
Upcoming talk in Stockholm Read More »
Why did the modern economic revolution in production and trade first happen in north-western Europe? At the APEE conference, Deirdre McCloskey delivered a plenary address based on her new book, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World. Her argument is that neither material resources nor technology nor capital accumulation nor geographical factors drove
APEE update — Deirdre McCloskey Read More »
Some wise words from Deirdre McCloskey, for those who fear that things were healthier in the good old days and that we are degrading our environment and living less authentic lives: “‘Ah, but the environment was better.’ Briefly for now, no. Consider that you may be mistaken. Air quality during the past fifty years has
Capitalism versus the good old days Read More »