ISME2010

Virtue and Economic Crises

Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania

July 29-August 1, 2010

The 4th Annual Conference of the International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry

Conference Secretary: Andrius Bielskis

Alasdair MacIntyre once argued that Karl Marx left philosophy and turned to political economy at a time when his philosophical enquiry was still incomplete.  From After Virtue to Dependent Rational Animals MacIntyre’s work has laid a solid philosophical foundation for building an understanding of the nature of human rationality, virtue and practice. This conference aims to encourage interdisciplinary research into the field of ethics, philosophy, political economy, social theory and theology in order to think through the moral and political aspects of the future of economic development. Its underlying presupposition rests in our belief that the orthodox neoclassical economic theory has to be theoretically challenged. A robust Aristotelian social theory and moral philosophy can contribute in rethinking these presuppositions and beliefs.

Possible Questions to Address Include:

• The importance of moral and intellectual virtues for equitable economic development.

• What are the moral and philosophical presuppositions behind the neoclassical economic thought and behind the existing socio-economic order of market capitalism?

• What can economic theory learn from moral philosophy and virtue ethics?

• What is the role of business ethics in times of economic crises?

• What does the current economic crisis tell us about the place of an ethics of social relationships in the economic system of advanced modernity?