Is there such a thing as altruistic business?
Do forms of business founded on the idea of no charge exist? Can economics really be reconciled with altruism, business with other people, the market with giving? Economics is a challenge to be won not only because companies fight the daily battle of costs and prices, but also because economics itself can have different implications closer to humankind, even mapping out a corporate management different from that which is most widespread nowadays.
These are non-theoretical but absolutely practical questions given that they can affect the working management of companies.
For a better understanding, economists, entrepreneurs and philosophers have worked on an analysis built around the Encyclical of Benedict XVI Caritas in Veritate or Charity in Truth. This has produced Cultura d’impresa e costruzione del bene comune. L’Enciclica Caritas in Veritate per un mondo migliore [“Corporate culture and construction of the common good. The Charity in Truth Encyclical for a better world”], around three hundred pages of works edited by Angelo Ferro and Pierluigi Sassi for the Unione Cristiana Imprenditori e Dirigenti [Christian Union of Managers and Entrepreneurs] and the publishers Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
If economics is a challenge, Charity in Truth constitutes a challenge to the challenge. The Encyclical is in fact an economic and social analysis of the situation in the 21st century with strong ethical references, but whose thinking bases above all on the need for not separating economics from mankind, i.e. widening the concept of the person to the concept of relations which makes human action the sign of creating of the common good, i.e. human social living.
The book thus narrates an original and in-depth reflection in which contributions from economists stand alongside the recounting and description of the practical applications of the social doctrine to successful business, to the world of training, credit and social dynamics. A process which supplies original ideas to be tried out and applied also in other firms.
The Encyclical and the actions revolving around it thus end up by reasoning on at least two concepts – charity and business – which are apparently unconnected yet which increasingly seek each other out and often come together.
Cultura d’impresa e costruzione del bene comune. L’enciclica Caritas in veritate per un mondo migliore
A. Ferro – P. Sassi
Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2010
Do forms of business founded on the idea of no charge exist? Can economics really be reconciled with altruism, business with other people, the market with giving? Economics is a challenge to be won not only because companies fight the daily battle of costs and prices, but also because economics itself can have different implications closer to humankind, even mapping out a corporate management different from that which is most widespread nowadays.
These are non-theoretical but absolutely practical questions given that they can affect the working management of companies.
For a better understanding, economists, entrepreneurs and philosophers have worked on an analysis built around the Encyclical of Benedict XVI Caritas in Veritate or Charity in Truth. This has produced Cultura d’impresa e costruzione del bene comune. L’Enciclica Caritas in Veritate per un mondo migliore [“Corporate culture and construction of the common good. The Charity in Truth Encyclical for a better world”], around three hundred pages of works edited by Angelo Ferro and Pierluigi Sassi for the Unione Cristiana Imprenditori e Dirigenti [Christian Union of Managers and Entrepreneurs] and the publishers Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
If economics is a challenge, Charity in Truth constitutes a challenge to the challenge. The Encyclical is in fact an economic and social analysis of the situation in the 21st century with strong ethical references, but whose thinking bases above all on the need for not separating economics from mankind, i.e. widening the concept of the person to the concept of relations which makes human action the sign of creating of the common good, i.e. human social living.
The book thus narrates an original and in-depth reflection in which contributions from economists stand alongside the recounting and description of the practical applications of the social doctrine to successful business, to the world of training, credit and social dynamics. A process which supplies original ideas to be tried out and applied also in other firms.
The Encyclical and the actions revolving around it thus end up by reasoning on at least two concepts – charity and business – which are apparently unconnected yet which increasingly seek each other out and often come together.
Cultura d’impresa e costruzione del bene comune. L’enciclica Caritas in veritate per un mondo migliore
A. Ferro – P. Sassi
Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2010