"What kinds of habits do markets engender? Does capitalism corrupt, or does it promote trust, cooperation, and the development of human excellance? Can economists really make sense of human behaviour without paying attention to questions of character? Jennifer A.Baker and Mark D.White's fascinating volume assembles a wide-raning roster of scholars who lay out the best current thinking on these questions in erudite yet readable prose. It turns out that economists do have much to learn from the rich moral psychology of Aristotle, the Stoics, Adam Smith, and Kant. It turns out that markets aren't so bad for the soul. This is an indispensable collection for anyone interested in moral psychology, economic theory, or the morality of markets."
Will Wilkinson, Vice President for the Policy, Niskanen Center and former writer for The Economist
"Twentieth century economics sought rigour in models of rational choice, thereby bracketing concern with the goods that economic action can seek or undermine, and distancing economics from ethics. Economics and the Virtues is a rich and rewarding collection that brings together stimulating accounts of this loss and of some possibilities for retrieval. It explore classical accounts of the virtues, and argues that they remain essential not only to character but to culture, including the culture of markets'."
Onora O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge