Work, Meaning, and Virtue

Abstract

The priority that we should attach to meaningful work has been contested in both rights-based/liberal and welfare/socialist traditions. To make the case for meaningful work in these traditions is first to overcome objections from within these traditions themselves concerning the conceptual validity of meaningful work, and the impact its prioritization might have on other valued goods. For virtue traditions, however, no such obstacles obtain. Undertaking meaningful work in the company of others is necessary if we are to learn to order our desires and develop virtues. The social embodiment of virtue traditions depends on internal relationships between the type of work required of us, the range of goods such work enables us to appreciate, and the qualities of character required for their realization. This chapter outlines the importance of meaningful work to the virtue traditions and draws on recent empirical research which provides support for their central contentions.