Conclusions

Throughout this book, our authors have reconstructed and examined ethical theories from various traditions in search of practicable models for a contemporary humanistic ethics. They had been asked to pay special attention to the interface between business and society because of the enormous impact that economic behavior has upon culture, politics, and the environment. Since the onset of economic globalization, the premises for any and all ethics changed markedly. The traditional ways (such as religious, political, or conventional) and institutions that reinforce and sanction collective values are being rapidly transformed by the forceful dynamics of the global economy. Against this changed background, the perennial question about the good has to be raised anew. In our concluding remarks, we therefore first outline the current configurations a humanistic ethics needs to address, before highlighting the main conclusions of the studies made by our authors.