Integrity in Economic Life: An Aristotelian Perspective

Abstract

From the Aristotelian perspective, integrity is a virtue that disposes the possessors to take the right actions that would promote the realization of the ideal state of the communities of which they are members. In economic life, an employee who possesses integrity would take the right actions that would contribute to the realization of the ideal corporation, the ideal market, and the ideal larger whole community. The right actions do not only constitute the good life, but also express the wholeness of the self because the self is an expanded self that includes, in a sense, the ideal communities. This account of integrity provides a normative foundation for evaluating corruption. For, while an act of integrity expresses the particularities to promote the common good necessarily required for the realization of the ideal communities, corruption is an abuse of power by manipulating the common good for some particular interest.