Honorable Business: A Framework for Business in a Just and Humane Society.

• Author: Hobbs, Bradley k.

Honorable Business: A Framework for Business in a Just and Humane Society

By James R. Otteson

New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Pp. xii, 234. $35 paperback.

Honorable Business: A Framework for Business in a Just and Humane Society is an ambitious and worthwhile undertaking. In it, James Otteson, director of the Eudaimonia Institute at wake Forest University, presents both a reasoned defense of commercial society and a useful guidebook for those individuals who participate in commercial life. He argues that one can simultaneously pursue commerce and the betterment of society and self. He presents the reader with solid arguments that ultimately promote and defend commerce. All the while, Otteson pays close attention to the individual as the ultimate actor and notes that to succeed at a societal level, individual actors must internalize the practice of "honorable business." Otteson strives to join the individual pursuit of Aristotle's eudaimonia--genuine human flourishing--with the bounty of the market.

This is not your traditional "business ethics" book, a genre I nearly always find contrived, superficial, and ultimately unsatisfying. Another jejune overview of opposing philosophical perspectives followed by a collection of case studies is not going to move the cause of markets forward. Otteson's book can. He provides a consistent, philosophical defense of business within the context of the individuals who practice it.

Ayn Rand's claim that utilitarian defenses of capitalism fail philosophically is true. Otteson provides a clear, concise alternative to Rand's objectivism, particularly for those who embrace methodological subjectivism in economics. He employs utilitarian arguments when referencing the benefits of capitalism to society (e.g., capitalism produces higher standards of living), but his overall argument is rooted in the individual Aristotelian pursuit of eudaimonia.

What is true for markets is true for any institutional setting: bad actors (those eschewing eudaimonia) damage the reputation and operations of the institution in which they act. This is as true in religion and government as it is in business, Thus, Otteson starts by addressing the role that business--as an institution--ought to play. His framework is "a properly functioning market economy" in pursuit of "a just and humane society" that "creates value" through the practice of "honorable business" (p. 4).

The second chapter draws upon Otteson's previous work on...