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Handbook of the Philosophical Foundations of Business Ethics pp 159–178Cite as

Scholastic Business Ethics: Thomas Aquinas Versus William of Ockham

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Abstract

For Thomas Aquinas, economic transactions, as human interactions, cannot be separated from ethics. Since the human being flourishes through virtuous living and strives to flourish, virtues are just as much of relevance to business as they are to every other sphere of human conduct. Moral objectives are neither external nor marginal to economics. Instead, they are fundamental in order to understand central human motivation behind the production and exchange of goods. Business has a social purpose; it is to serve the common good. Thus, Thomas limits the quantitative pursuit of profit by qualitative concerns for human well-being and establishes a hierarchy of life-promoting goods (as ends) that business (as a means) is to procure. On this basis, he develops a rich economic ethics that spells out how business should be informed by virtues and conducted in the light of the idea of social justice. Private property and corporate wealth have to serve all members of society and must be used with respect to the human dignity of each. This, Thomas argues, holds true across time and culture. Irrespective of the requisite specifications that context and circumstance demand, he defends the general orientation of business and the economy toward human well-being and dignity as of global reach and universal validity.

Thomas’s normative business theory rests ultimately on intermediary position that he holds in the debates about metaphysical universals that captured the minds of medieval thinkers. According to Thomas, human intellect is capable of conceiving valid universals about reality. This assumption was severely challenged by nominalist thinkers of the late Middle Ages. They argued, on the contrary, that the ideas of the human mind were but the names (nomina) of things – signifiers, which revealed nothing (objective) about the signified but communicated only the (subjective) interests of their users. Once, however, ideas are viewed merely as linguistic conventions, the assignment of a “natural” value to a given good above and beyond its customary (market) value becomes notoriously difficult. Thus, by undermining the metaphysical foundations of medieval epistemology, nominalist philosophers, such as William of Ockham, also destabilized the ethics that rested upon them.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For instructive feedback, I wish to thank Anthony Celano and Laura Melkonian.

  2. 2.

    Since no critical edition of the Summa theologiae has yet appeared, both the Leonine edition of 1888 and the revision of the Piana edition (Ottawa 1953) have been consulted. For the remaining texts of Thomas, the Leonine edition has been used. Where no Leonine edition exists, the Marietti (Turin 1961–1967) version has been used.

  3. 3.

    Synderesis is a term first used by Jerome in his commentary on Ezechiel. It may be a misreading of either syneidesis (conscience) or synesis (intelligence or insight). For its introduction into medieval moral thought, see [47]. For its role in the history of ideas see [31].

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  1. Global Ethic Institute Academic Director of The Humanistic Management Center, Hintere Grabenstr. 26, D-72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Prof. Claus Dierksmeier

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  1. Peter Löscher-Stiftungslehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsethik, Technische Universität München, München, Germany

    Christoph Luetge

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Dierksmeier, C. (2013). Scholastic Business Ethics: Thomas Aquinas Versus William of Ockham. In: Luetge, C. (eds) Handbook of the Philosophical Foundations of Business Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1494-6_83

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1494-6_83

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