ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the purpose of finance, identifying the benefits it brings and the harms it occasions when challenges are not properly addressed. It presents "financialization" as a trend in the economy, together with its opportunities and difficulties. The chapter discusses the virtues relevant to financial practices and how they can be lived by individuals in the context of their own biographies and in the face of conflicting professional traditions. It explains the role of finance in society, particularly with respect to human flourishing. The chapter considers financial practices as "goods" embedded in the biographies of financial practitioners and in the traditions of their profession. It attempts this making use of indications from MacIntyre and Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Once this theoretical background is set, the chapter analyzes a case that illustrates how the different virtues can be lived in finance.
