Name: The Profit Motive, Meaning and Meaningful Work
Start: 2026-07-06T14:00:00+1200
End: 2026-07-06T14:55:00+1200

The Profit Motive, Meaning and Meaningful Work

Monday July 6, 2026 2:00pm - 2:55pm NZST

MSB1.03

This paper explores the vexed relationship between the profit motive and meaningful work; more specifically it considers the extent to which the pursuit of commercial profits at work typically undermines, diminishes or even eliminates possibilities for engaging in activity which provides genuine satisfaction in and of itself. In political philosophy, there is a long tradition of regarding profit-seeking as necessarily devoid of meaning for the profit-seeker. Think here of Aristotle who, in the Politics, suggests that the pursuit of wealth is unnatural since it does not possess what we might now call “satisfaction conditions”. Equally, if we consider the circumstances of those working in businesses where the primary organising principle is the maximisation of profit, then again there is no shortage of political philosophers (most notably in the socialist tradition) who are sceptical that such work can reliably provide opportunities for meaningful agency.

Should we regard the profit motive as necessarily (or even typically) inimical to the pursuit of meaning at work? Herein I suggest that if reject conceptions of the profit motive which regard it as involving only one kind of motivational set, then we can develop a plausible compatibilist account of the relationship between profit-seeking and meaningful work.

Speakers

Adrian Walsh

University of New England

Adrian Walsh is Professor in Philosophy and Political Theory - at the University of New England. He is known for his expertise on political philosophy, philosophy of economics and applied ethics. Walsh is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Philosophy.une.edu.au/staff-p... Read More →

Monday July 6, 2026 2:00pm - 2:55pm NZST
MSB1.03

Political Philosophy, In Person

AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

Adrian Walsh

Attendees (27)

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AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

Adrian Walsh

Attendees (27)

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