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Doing Business: Professional Work and Eutrapelian Play

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Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management

Part of the book series: International Handbooks in Business Ethics ((IHBE))

Abstract

As a form of professional work, business centers on design activity. Professional/design work should be informed by careful practical reasoning, which identifies basic goods to be sought, guides our quest for these goods, and forbids wrongs. At the same time, the open-endedness in professional/design work means that there will always be playful fluidity when making business-related decisions. At least, this should be the case for a business in its focal sense. But the first practical principles (the natural law) which shape our normative deliberation can also be the subject of reflection leading to metaphysical insights. By excluding the naturalistic evolutionary worldview that cannot consistently be believed when adhering to the first principles of practical reason understood as properly basic beliefs, one uncovers a corollary theistic metaphysics under new natural law. Such a metaphysics consists of an account of a God at play. Business done soundly but playfully can therefore be a participation of God’s play, realizing the virtue of eutrapelia.

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Acknowledgements

Aspects of this chapter were worked on while the author was a Visiting Research Scholar at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, and a Visiting Academic at the Institute of Education, University of London, in June 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanyang Technological University, Policy and Leadership Studies, National Institute of Education, 1 Nanyang Walk, 637616, Singapore, Singapore

    Jude Soo Meng Chua

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  1. Jude Soo Meng Chua
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Correspondence to Jude Soo Meng Chua .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Alejo José G. Sison

  2. Department of Philosophy, Saint Louis University , St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Gregory R. Beabout

  3. School of Economics and Business Administration, Business Department, University of Navarra, Pamploma, Spain

    Ignacio Ferrero

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Chua, J.S.M. (2017). Doing Business: Professional Work and Eutrapelian Play. In: Sison, A., Beabout, G., Ferrero, I. (eds) Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management. International Handbooks in Business Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6510-8_80

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