The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce

ethical striving 331point of automaticity, though rules are helpful here and there. Let’s see:y′ +R(x)y = S(x)yk; hmm: can it be made linear? Let’s see: ninth line; timeto start the sestet. Let’s see: a delicate laboratory balance; uh-oh—will trafficoutside the laboratory affect the result?Van Staveren argues that “Willy invested in the capabilities of freedombut did not invest in the capabilities belonging to the domains of justice andcare....Without a commitment to care Willy is no longer able to sustainrelationships with his clients.” 34 That seems right. But she does not think,and neither do I, that the economistic vocabulary of “investing” is going toreduce ethical growth to a formula. The search for rule-bound certitudebecame an intellectual obsession in Europe as faith receded. The ancientcase for a full theory of the separate virtues, as against a pocket-sized card,is that the named virtues are the lives of humans.