Beyond Small-Is-Beautiful: A Buddhist and Feminist Analysis of Ethics and Business

Buddhist philosophy teaches a thoroughly relational ontology, holding that what really is are relations and processes enfolding out of a common substrate though time. Often, however, attempts to apply Buddhist thinking to economic issues seem to forget this. Corporations and markets are described in the language of substantive structures and impersonal mechanisms, rather than in relational and process terms. This essay argues that a thorough-going Buddhist analysis, supplemented by contemporary insights from feminist theory, yields a relational understanding of business firms and markets that can help move debates about ethics and business beyond issues of scale. 1 Drafted for Ecology, Ethics & the Limits Of Business, ed. László Zsolnai (Budapest University of Economic Sciences) & Knut Ims (Norwegian School of Economics & Business Administration). GDAE Working Paper No. 04-01: Beyond Small-Is-Beautiful 1 Thereupon, the Venerable Nagasena said to King Milinda..." How then did you come on foot, or on a mount?" "I did not come, Sir, on foot, but on a chariot." "If you have come on a chariot, then please explain to me what a chariot is. Is the pole the chariot?"