Traditions of Practical Wisdom in Business and Management

This book deals with the development of key traditions of practical wisdom, particularly in Aristotelian virtue ethics, but also extending to other traditions such as Confucianism and Islam. It includes historical perspectives in philosophy, and offers views on the core concept of phronesis or practical wisdom and associated themes such as the idea of ’good’ in good judgment, decision making in particular contexts, uncertainty, the acquisition of wisdom, and deliberation. It also includes an exploration of more contentious themes, such as reciprocity in the virtues, techne vs praxis, and standards.

​Barry Schwartz is an emeritus professor of psychology at Swarthmore College and a visiting professor at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley. He has spent forty years thinking and writing about the interaction between economics and morality. He has written several books that address aspects of this interaction, including The Battle for Human Nature, The Costs of Living, The Paradox of Choice, Practical Wisdom, and most recently, Why We Work. The Paradox of Choice was named one of the top business books of the year by both Business Week and Forbes Magazine, and has been translated into twenty-five languages. Schwartz has written for sources as diverse as The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Slate, Scientific American, The New Republic, the Harvard Business Review, and the Guardian. He has appeared on dozens of radio shows, including NPR’s Morning Edition, and Talk of the Nation, and has been interviewed on Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN), the PBS News Hour, The Colbert Report, and CBS Sunday Morning. Schwartz has spoken three times at the TED conference, and his TED talks have been viewed by more than 16 million people.
Caleb Bernacchio is a doctoral candidate in business ethics at IESE Business School in Barcelona. He holds a B Phil from the Pontifical University of St Thomas in Rome, an MBA from Louisiana State University, and an MRM from IESE Business School. Caleb’s primary research interests concern the intersection of neo-Aristotelian practical philosophy, especially virtue ethics and action theory, with issues in organization theory, strategy, and entrepreneurship research. He has published in Business Ethics Quarterly, Business Ethics: A European Review, and Philosophy of Management.
César González-Cantón is Assistant Professor at CUNEF - Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He holds an MBA from IESE Business School (2007) and a PhD in Philosophy (2004) from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. His research interests extend mainly in three directions: 1) The intersection of capability approach, human rights, and business ethics; 2) Philosophy of economics and management; 3) Practical wisdom. He has taught at several universities, including Universidad de Navarra and Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain. He has been Research Fellow of the Business Ethics Chair at IESE and had visiting appointments in University of Notre Dame (USA) and Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Germany). Two of his co-authored books were published with Palgrave McMillan in 2014: Human Foundations of Management and Phronesis and Quiddity in Management. He has also published in the Journal of Business Ethics and philosophical outlets.
Angus Robson is a lecturer at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University. Prior to this, he led social enterprises and regeneration projects in the UK, raising skills and employability in areas suffering economic deprivation. He holds a PhD (2014) in Business Ethics from Northumbria. His main research interest is in Aristotelian virtue ethics, with a particular emphasis on the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Hans Georg Gadamer. He has additional research interests in ethics of care and machine ethics. The empirical context of his work is Scottish banking after the global financial crisis. In addition to a number of conference papers on these topics, he has published in Business Ethics: A European Review.