The Ethical Dimension of Industrial Production: the Role of Transitive Motivation

Abstract

The ethical dimension of industrial production has been largely neglected by theorists of production. This article identifies three important features of the production process, i.e. utility, compartmentalization, and independent external end-point; brought about by industrialization in the development of the production of goods. We claim that a mechanistic understanding of these features gets in the way of an ethical approach to the topic. We analyze attempts to overcome such an understanding by appeal to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This article concludes that this strategy is insufficient and that a comprehensive ethics of production only comes into view if we incorporate transitive motivation into the analysis.