Ethical Theory and Business Chapter Two

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Ethical Theory and BusinessChapter Two

• Jerry Estenson

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The language of ethics

• Fairness
• Justice
• Desert
• Rights
• Obligation
• Equality
• Greed
• Ego

• Principle
• Consequence
• Integrity
• Personal Autonomy

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Relativism, Cultural and MoralNorman Bowie

• Cultural Relativism
• Different cultures have ideas about ethical
  behavior
• Moral (ethical) Relativism
• What is really right or wrong is completely
  determined by the culture in which a person lives

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CRITICISM OF MORAL RELATIVISM

• A culture thinking something is moral does not
  make it moral (slavery)
• It is not consistent with moral language which
  tends to be absolute
• All cultures tend to believe in universal
  principles
• There are no separate cultures (Bosnia, Somalia,
  Cambodia)
• Cultural traditions are bounded by physical laws
  (outlawing sex)

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Dealing with ethical and cultural relativism

• The counter-point to relativism is something is
  wrong since there is a wide variety of other
  beliefs and values contrary to the action. As an
  example sexual harassment is wrong because it is
  contrary to people should be treated with equal
  respect, people should be free from coercion and
  threats, self-respect is good, loss of dignity
  is harmful.

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• Remember
• Accepting a deplorable situation as least
  harmful of the alternatives is not the same as
  accepting it as ethically valid.
• Tolerating diverse opinions and values is not
  the same as ethical relativism.

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Utilitarianism ConsequentialistHobbes, Hume,
Adam Smith, Bentham, John Stuart Mills

• Can determine if act is good or bad based on the
  outcome (consequences of the act)
• Maximizing the overall good greatest good for
  the greatest number
• Constructed as a counter-point to authoritarian
  policies that aimed to benefit the political
  elite. Thus the foundation of representative
  democracy.

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Other Utilitarian perspectives

• Happiness is the ultimate good
• Utilitarians judge action not as happiness of the
  individual but the general or overall good
• Happiness is beyond the physical (hedonism) but
  also experiences of social and intellectual
  pleasure (Betham)

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The Utilitarian Calculus

• Educated citizenry with freedom to pursue their
  own ends who make decisions through majority-rule
  democracy a society that maximizes the
  happiness for the greatest number of people

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Preference Utilitarianism The foundation for
market economies

• Because of limited resources people must rank
  order their wants.
• They then enter the market and are free to
  bargain in an open, free and competitive market
  environment.
• Thus competition among rational and
  self-interested individuals will continuously
  work to promote the greatest overall good

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The Hedonist Calculus

• How do we quantify pleasure?
• Gross national product

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The Utilitarian doctrines in business

• Deregulation of private industry
• Protection of personal property rights
• Allow for free exchange of goods and services
• Encourage competition
• Allow the invisible hand of the market to work
  (Adam Smith)
• This even allows people to take risks and thus
  make more

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Deontological (Duty)

• We will not use people as a means to an end
• Individuals have rights that should not be
  sacrificed simply to produce a net increase in
  the collective good ethical rights which are
  basic to all individuals
• We have duties ( also defined as obligations,
  commitments or responsibilities)

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KANTS CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE

• UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE
• A person should act that the principle of ones
  act could become a universal law of human action
  in a world in which one would hope to live.
• A person should treat other people as having
  intrinsic value, and not merely as a means to
  achieve ones end.
• People should not be treated as objects but as
  subjects

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Rights Talk

• Want is a psychological state of the individual
• Wants get translated into interest work for that
  persons benefit and are connected to what is
  good for the person
• Right are so important to well being of the
  individual that they should not be sacrificed to
  increase the overall good.
• Right override the collective will

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Basic Human Rights

• Freedom to make our own choices
• Equal treatment (or consideration)

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Virtue Ethics

• Ethics requires us, at least at times, to act for
  the well-being of others. It asks to define the
  virtues that lead to a life that is full,
  satisfying , meaningful, enriched and worthy.
• This is called character and is the emotional
  (affective) side of humans.
• Character is shaped while young by parents,
  schools, church, friends, and society. As adults
  it is modifies by workplace