Chapter One Ethical Theory and Business Practice

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Chapter OneEthical Theory and Business Practice

• Ethical Theory and Business, 6th Edition
• Tom L. Beauchamp Norman E. Bowie

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Objectives

• After studying this chapter the student should be
  able to
• Distinguish between morality and ethical theory.
• Distinguish between morality and prudence.
• Distinguish between morality and law.
• Explain the three approaches to the study of
  morality.
• Describe the moral theory of relativism.

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Objectives

• Discuss the egoism moral theory.
• Explore some of the problems of the egoism
  theory.
• Interpret the different types of utilitarian
  theory.
• Discuss some of the problems of the utilitarian
  theory.
• Apply Kantian ethics using different scenarios.

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Objectives

• Explain the principles behind the common morality
  theories.
• Explore the concept of rights theories.
• Distinguish between virtue ethics, and feminist
  theories and the ethics of care.

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Overview

• Morality
• Approaches to the Study of Morality
• Relativism
• Egoism
• Utilitarian Theories
• Kantian Ethics
• Common Morality Theories

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Overview

• Rights Theories
• Virtue Ethics
• Feminist Theories and the Ethics of Care
• Analysis of Cases

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Morality

• Principles or rules of moral conduct that people
  use to decide what is right or wrong.

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Morality v. Ethical Theory

• Morality is concerned with the social practices
  defining right and wrong.
• Ethical theory and moral philosophies provide
  guidelines for justification of right or wrong
  actions when settling human conflict.
• No one moral philosophy is accepted by everyone!

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Morality v. Prudence

• Rules of prudence promote self-interest, doing
  what is prudent for oneself.
• Rules of morality promote the interest of other
  people.
• Morality and prudence should generally work
  hand-in-hand if a business is to succeed.

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Law

• Public's agency for translating morality into
  explicit social guidelines and practices and for
  stipulating punishments for offenses.

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Morality v. Law

• Statutory law v. case law
• Statutory laws are federal / state statutes and
  their accompanying administrative regulations.
• Case laws are judge-made laws that establish
  influential precedents that provide material for
  reflection on both legal and moral questions.
• Morality and ethics begin where the law is
  unclear or not defined!

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Rule of Conscience

• Consciences
• Vary from person to person and time to time.
• Are altered by circumstance, religious belief,
  life experiences, and training.
• Are not consistent from day to day.
• Moral justification must then be based on a
  source external to conscience itself.

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Approaches to the Study of Morality

• Descriptive approach - provides a factual
  description and explanation of moral behavior and
  beliefs, as performed by anthropologists,
  sociologists, and historians.
• Referred to as the scientific study of ethics.
• Conceptual approach - analyzes meanings of
  central terms in ethics such as right,
  obligation, justice, good, virtue, and
  responsibility.

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Approaches to the Study of Morality

• Prescriptive approach - attempts to formulate and
  defend basic moral norms or standards by
  determining what ought to be done versus what is
  being done.
• Referred to as normative ethics.

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Relativism

• An ethical theory that claims right and wrong is
  subjectively determined by each culture.

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Relativism

• What is good is socially accepted and what is bad
  is socially unacceptable in a given culture.
• There is no such thing as universal truth in
  ethics, there are only the various cultural codes
  and nothing more.
• An argument against relativism
• There are some basic moral principles that all
  societies will have in common, because those
  rules are necessary for society to exist.

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Methods to Easing Moral Disagreements

• Obtaining objective information
• Definitional clarity
• Example-counterexample
• Analysis of arguments and positions

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Egoism

• A moral theory that contends all choices either
  involve or should involve self-promotion as their
  sole objective.

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Psychological Egoism

• Everyone is always motivated to act in his or her
  own perceived self-interest.
• A main argument against psychological egoism is
  that there may be no purely altruistic moral
  motivation to help other people unless there is
  personal gain.

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Ethical Egoism

• The only valid standard of conduct is the
  obligation to promote one's own well being above
  everyone else's.
• Ethical egoists believe that people should not be
  their brothers keeper, because people do not
  completely understand the true needs of others.
• Its every man for himself in this world!

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Utilitarian Theories

• Moral theories that assert an actions rightness
  is determined by the actual or probable
  consequences that the action will have for the
  greatest number of people affected by that action.

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Utilitarian Theories

• Utilitarian theories hold that the moral worth of
  actions or practices are determined solely by
  their consequences.
• An action or practice is right if it leads to the
  best possible balance of good consequences over
  bad consequences for all the parties affected.

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Utilitarian Theories

• Act utilitarianism
• Argues that in all situations the utility of an
  action is based on an act that leads to the
  greatest good for the greatest number.
• Treats rules as useful guidelines to help
  determine ethical behavior.
• Will break a moral rule if breaking the rule
  leads to the greatest good for the greatest
  number.

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Utilitarian Theories

• Rule utilitarianism
• The morality of an action should be evaluated on
  the basis of principles or rules designed to
  promote the greatest utility for the greatest
  number.
• Rule utilitarians hold that rules have a central
  position in morality that cannot be compromised
  by the demands of particular situations.

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Utilitarian Theories

• Utilitarian decision-making relies on tools such
  as cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment to
  determine the greatest utility.
• Main argument against utilitarianism is
  questioning whether units of happiness or some
  other utilitarian value can be measured and
  compared in order to determine the best action
  among alternatives.

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Kantian Ethics

• A moral theory that holds you should follow only
  those rules which you would will to be universal
  laws for everyone, including yourself.

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Kantian Ethics

• Categorical imperative principle states "I ought
  never to act except in such a way that I can also
  will that my maxim should become universal law."
• The principle is categorical because it admits of
  no exceptions and is absolutely binding, and is
  imperative because it gives instruction on how
  one must act.
• Respect-for-persons principle states persons
  should never be used as a means to an end.

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Kantian Ethics

• Kant believed that morality should follow
  absolute rules that admit no exceptions, which
  has been a major argument against this theory.
• Another argument against Kantian theories is that
  they are narrow and inadequate to handle various
  problems in the moral life.

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Common Morality Theories

• A moral theory based on the concept there is a
  common morality that all people share by virtue
  of communal life.

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Common Morality Theories

• The greatest obligation in any given circumstance
  must be found based on the greatest balance of
  right over wrong in that particular context.
• Obligations and rights are not inflexible
  standards, but rather strong prima facie moral
  demands that may be overridden in circumstances
  of competition with equal or stronger moral
  claims.

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Rights Theories

• A moral theory based on the concept that all
  people have human rights that form the justifying
  basis of obligations because they best express
  the purpose of morality, which is the securing of
  liberties or other benefits for a right-holder.

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Rights Theories

• Human rights are held independent of membership
  in a state or other social organization.
• Human rights evolved from the notion of natural
  rights.
• Natural rights are rights that belong to all
  persons purely by virtue of their being human.
• Negative rights pertain to the obligations on the
  part of other people to refrain from interfering
  with our freedom of action.

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Rights Theories

• Positive rights impose obligations on people to
  provide other people with goods or services.
• A primary problem with this theory is that there
  is no hierarchy for rights claims
• How does someone determine which right takes
  precedence or has more value over other rights?

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Virtue Ethics

• This moral theory suggests that morality is
  comprised of virtue, which has to do with a
  person's character and the types of actions that
  emanate from that character.

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Virtue Ethics

• Some typical virtuous traits in the business
  arena would be integrity, honesty, truthfulness,
  courage, loyalty, courteousness, and
  conscientiousness.
• Virtuous traits are acquired and developed
  throughout our life experiences.
• A primary problem with this theory is that people
  have varying definitions of what traits are
  considered virtuous.

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Feminist Theories and the Ethics of Care

• This moral theory focuses on a set of character
  traits that are deeply valued in close personal
  relationships.

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Feminist Theories and the Ethics of Care

• Typical traits would include sympathy,
  compassion, fidelity, love, friendship, and the
  like.
• This theory grew out of two feminist
  presuppositions
• The subordination of women is as wrong as it is
  common.
• The experiences of women are worthy of respect
  and should be taken seriously.

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Feminist Theories and the Ethics of Care

• An argument against this theory is that the focus
  is on how power is used to oppress women only,
  whereas traditional ethics is based on the
  assumption that its values and rules apply to all
  rational persons equally.

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Analysis of Cases

• The case method in law is used to show examples
  of established precedents of evidence and
  justification.
• The case method in business is used to present
  managerial situations so managers will know how
  to think when confronted with a dilemma.

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Analysis of Cases

• The casuistical method for case analysis in
  ethics is used to show conclusions on ethical
  matters, then to compare and contrast the central
  features of the morally clear and settled cases
  with the features of unsettled cases.