On the implications of the practice-institution distinction: MacIntyre and the application of modern virtue ethics to business

After exploring MacIntyre's (1985) practice-institution distinction, the article demonstrates its applicability to business-as-practice and to corporations as institutions. it then considers the implications of MacIntyre's schema to ethical schizophrenia, to the claim that the market is a source of the virtues and to the opposite claim that capitalism corrodes character. A fully worked out modern virtue ethics, based on MacIntyre's work, is then established and the claim is made and substantiated that such an understanding of MacIntrye's work revitalises it and makes it directly applicable to business and to corporations.