ABSTRACT
According to classical liberalism, markets are instruments for the mutually advantageous voluntary exchange of goods and services among individuals who have conflicting interests. Some critics have used a virtue ethics understanding of behavior in markets to call for moral limits to markets because this classical view does not respect the internal value of human practices and the intrinsic motivations of individuals. In response, Luigino Bruni and Robert Sugden have offered a virtue ethics defense of markets, thereby ‘reclaiming virtue ethics for economics’. We argue that their account needs further elaboration and clarification before it is possible to assess the soundness of their virtue-theoretic understanding of markets.
Calderón Gómez, Luís Carlos and Talisse, Robert B and Weymark, John A, Bruni and Sugden on Market Virtues (May 28, 2025), Cardozo Legal Studies Research Paper No 2025-14; International Review of Economics, volume 72, issue 2, 2025 [10.1007/s12232-025-00491-0].
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