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The ethics of competition
Author(s) -
Pharo Patrick
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international social science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.237
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1468-2451
pISSN - 0020-8701
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2451.2005.00562.x
Subject(s) - yardstick , capitalism , competition (biology) , environmental ethics , sociology , virtue , virtue ethics , positive economics , order (exchange) , moral disengagement , market competition , economics , quality (philosophy) , social science , neoclassical economics , epistemology , political science , market economy , law , politics , ecology , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , finance , biology
This paper on moral sociology first examines the moral aspect of criticisms traditionally levelled at capitalism and then analyses the attempted response and justification of capitalism based on the supposed naturally beneficial effects of competition. Social contests inherent in human ways of life are not restricted to economics and are unlikely to possess spontaneously the moral virtue attached to them. The article thus explores more specifically the ethical nature of producer and consumer competition and concludes by proposing that the level and quality of self‐esteem engendered or fostered by a socio‐economic order be taken as a sort of moral yardstick.