This book explores the underlying causes of the pervasive dominance of ‘unethics’ in contemporary affairs in economics, business, and society. It is argued that the state of unethics is related to the overexpansion of market and market values in all spheres of social life and human activities. A correlate of this development is the emergence of an extremely individualistic, materialistic and narcissistic mind-set that dictates the decisions and behavior of people and organizations.
The author argues that art can help to overcome the dominant market metaphysics of our age, as genuine art creates models of 'poetic dwelling,' which can generate non-linear, progressive change that opens up a larger playing field for ethics. Aesthetics and ethics go hand in hand. Ethical action is not just right for its own sake, but makes the world a richer, livable and more beautiful place.
Ethics, Meaning, and Market Society will be of interest to students at an advanced level, academics, researchers and professionals. It addresses the topics with regard to ethics in economics, business, and society in a contemporary context.
Part 1: Why Unethics?
1. Introduction: Market Overreach
Part 2: The Mechanism of Unethics
2. The Market and the Corruption of Activities
3. When the Invisible Hand Fails
4. Moral Disengagement
Part 3: Nature and Future Generations
5. Integral Ecology and Future Earth
6. Nurturing Place
7. The Fate of Future Generations
Part 4: Business and Economics
8. The Fallacy of Stakeholder Management
9. Economic Ethics and World Religions
10. Beyond Self
Part 5: The Richness of Life
11. Art Can Save the World
Biography
Laszlo Zsolnai is Professor and Director of the Business Ethics Center at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. He also serves as President of the European SPES Institute in Leuven, Belgium.
