ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the nature of production and the conceptual differences between action and production. It explores the purpose of the business firm as a community of people, as well as the issues that arise therefrom related to the virtue of justice and property rights. The chapter draws attention to the issues concerning production and the environment that emerged with modernity and industrialization. It presents the Aristotelian view of production as subordinate to ethics and politics, and how that view shifted in modernity. The chapter briefly shows the evolution of organization theory, from a technical account of the firm to a comprehensive idea of cooperative work, thanks to intrinsic and transcendent motivations. Finally, it explains how Catholic Social Teaching (CST) has consistently called for a moral order of production, emphasizing human dignity and service to the common good.
