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The Moral Case for Profit Maximization

Robert White

The Moral Case for Profit Maximization argues that profit maximization is moral when businessmen seek to maximize profit by creating goods or services that are of objective value. Traditionally, profit maximization has been defended on economic grounds. Profit, economists argue, incentivizes businessmen to produce goods and services. In this view, businessmen do not need to be virtuous as long as they deliver the goods. It challenges the traditional defense of profit maximization, arguing that profit maximization is morally ambitious because it requires businessmen to form normative abstractions and to cultivate a virtuous character. In so doing, the author also challenges the moral basis of corporate social responsibility. Proponents of CSR argue that businessmen can do good while doing well. This book argues that businessmen already do good by maximizing profit, drawing upon the histories of the wheel, the refrigerator, and the shipping container, as well as the biographies of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Thomas Edison to demonstrate the role of values in the creation of material goods and the role of the virtues in value creation. The author challenges readers to rethink the relationship between profit, value, and virtue.

Lexington Books

Pages: 240 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-4985-4263-0 • Hardback • April 2020 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-4265-4 • Paperback • December 2021 • $44.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-4985-4264-7 • eBook • April 2020 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Series: Capitalist Thought: Studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Subjects: Business & Economics / Economics / Theory, Political Science / History & Theory

The Moral Case for Profit Maximization

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

The Moral Case for Profit Maximization argues that profit maximization is moral when businessmen seek to maximize profit by creating goods or services that are of objective value. Traditionally, profit maximization has been defended on economic grounds. Profit, economists argue, incentivizes businessmen to produce goods and services. In this view, businessmen do not need to be virtuous as long as they deliver the goods. It challenges the traditional defense of profit maximization, arguing that profit maximization is morally ambitious because it requires businessmen to form normative abstractions and to cultivate a virtuous character. In so doing, the author also challenges the moral basis of corporate social responsibility. Proponents of CSR argue that businessmen can do good while doing well. This book argues that businessmen already do good by maximizing profit, drawing upon the histories of the wheel, the refrigerator, and the shipping container, as well as the biographies of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Thomas Edison to demonstrate the role of values in the creation of material goods and the role of the virtues in value creation. The author challenges readers to rethink the relationship between profit, value, and virtue.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 240 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-4985-4263-0 • Hardback • April 2020 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-4265-4 • Paperback • December 2021 • $44.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-4985-4264-7 • eBook • April 2020 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Series: Capitalist Thought: Studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Subjects: Business & Economics / Economics / Theory, Political Science / History & Theory

Author

Robert White is dean of faculty and assistant professor of philosophy at the American University in Bulgaria.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: The Questions of Profit Maximization

Chapter Two: Why Profit Maximization is Moral

Chapter Three: The Objective Value of Goods and Services

Chapter Four: The Virtues of Businessmen

Chapter Five: Clarifying Confusions About Profit Maximization

Chapter Six: Incomplete Defenses of Profit Maximization

Chapter Seven: The Inconvenient Truth About Corporate Social Responsibility

Conclusion

Reviews

"Robert White writes elegantly. The economic function of profit is well understood, yet, still often needed is explanation of the ethical significance of profit as reward-both material and symbolic-for productive achievement within a system of voluntary transactions. White argues forthrightly with compelling examples and clear logic."
— Stephen Hicks, Rockford University

“Despite its incredible contribution to human flourishing, capitalism is constantly under attack. This is because many people consider capitalism to be immoral. How can an immoral system produce a superior outcome? Robert White shows that capitalism, driven by profit maximization, is the only fully moral economic system which is why it so successful. This book is well worth reading.”
— John Allison, Retired Chairman and CEO of BB&T and Retired President and CEO of the Cato Institute

“Robert White has written a brilliantly-reasoned book, replete with vivid examples, demonstrating his theme that profit is indispensable to promoting human life and that the great wealth creators are moral giants.”
— Andrew Bernstein, Marist College

The Moral Case for Profit Maximization

Robert White

The Moral Case for Profit Maximization

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