Faculty Feature: Professor Carrie-Ann Biondi Says ‘Pleonexia’ Cause of Financial Crisis - Ethics Education Sorely Needed

Biondi says philosophy, and specifically Aristotle’s concept of virtue ethics, needs to be applied both in the business world and in the home to fully comprehend how the financial crisis came about and how it might be remedied. Pleonexia involves striving to build wealth and reputation (or whatever a person happens to desire) on any grounds necessary, no matter how shaky and unsecured those grounds may be and no matter the actual worth of the desired objects. The remedy for pleonexia is phronesis, a term meaning practical wisdom or good judgment.

Whether it was individuals trying to “keep up with the Joneses” by acquiring mortgages they couldn’t afford, or the lending institutions that provided these mortgages, or the government that relaxed regulations to allow banks to loan under such terms, all were driven by pleonexia, says Biondi. “The motives in these cases were to profit or acquire goods and push financial responsibility off to someone else,” she says. 

Biondi sees connections between virtue ethics and other moral contemporary issues including judicial rulings, the environment and parental responsibility. Virtue ethics can cause the personal qualities of leaders of corporations and legislators to overlap into their professional actions and decision-making. Pleonexia is timeless – it occurs today just as it did in ancient Greece. As a result, Biondi notes that teaching ethics in specific courses and reinforcing it in the core curriculum needs to be emphasized more in business schools and undergraduate colleges and universities.

Carrie-Ann Biondi’s research interests include citizenship and immigration policy, children’s rights, consent theory and political obligation, and philosophy of education, especially Socratic pedagogy. Her research is also branching out into philosophy of literature, with a focus on the relationship between moral and aesthetic value and the philosophy of death and dying. She teaches courses in political philosophy, philosophy of law, medical ethics, ancient Greek philosophy, and applied ethics (e.g., environment, war). She earned a bachelor’s degree in American Studies at Hofstra University and master’s and doctoral degrees in Philosophy at Bowling Green State University.

Published: November 10, 2008