Ethics, meaning, and market society / Laszlo Zsolnai.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Why unethics? -- Introduction: market overreach -- The mechanism of unethics -- The market and the corruption of activities -- When the invisible hand fails -- Moral disengagement -- Nature and future generations -- Integral ecology and future earth -- Nurturing place -- The fate of future generations -- Business and economics -- The fallacy of stakeholder management -- Economic ethics and world religions -- Beyond self -- The richness of life -- Art can save the world -- Index.

This book explores the underlying causes of the pervasive dominance of 'unethics' in contemporary affairs in economics, business, ecology and society. It is argued that the state of unethics is related to the overexpansion of market and market values in all spheres of social life and human activities. A correlate of this development is the emergence of an extremely individualistic, materialistic, and narcissistic mind-set that dictates the decisions and behavior of people and organizations. The author argues that art can help us to overcome the dominant market metaphysics of our age, as genuine art creates models of "poetic dwelling," which can generate non-linear, progressive change that opens up a larger playing field for ethics. Aesthetics and ethics go hand in hand. Ethical action is not just right for its own sake, but makes the world a richer, liveable, and more beautiful place.