midterm Flashcards
Ancient Mesopotamia
Hammurabi’s code.
Old Testament
- Law of Moses - Ten Commandments.
- Servants have a right for a sabbath (resting day).
Roman Catholic Church
- Cannon Law in the Middle Ages – definint what is “right” and what is “wrong”–> often oriented towards defining fair prices and wage.
Rise of Protestantism
- Questioning the doctrine of papal infallibility.
- Church was no longer intermediary between God and humanity.
Rise of Capitalism
- Urbanization - migration from the countriside to the city.
- Victorian era & colonialism/imperialism.
Morality (from latin moralitas - meaning “proper behaviour/character”)
- Norms, values & beliefs (embedded in social processes) which define
what is right and wrong for an individual or community. - Answers (beliefs based on practices or teaching) that people have
developed in ancient times in different cultural circles. - Examples: The Ten Commandments, The Golden Rule.
Ethos (Greek expression for moralitas - meaning “character”)
- Sum of norms, values and principles as well as rites, confessions and
customs of a social system - Examples: economic (ethos), working (ethos
Ethics
- Study of morality and the application of reason to elucidate specific rules and principles that determine morally acceptable behaviour.
- Ethical theories –> codifications of these rules and principles.
- Reflection on and checking of existing morality (proper behaviour, character) /
Ethos (character, custom, habit). - Ethics can be understood as an inquiry into the morality.
- Aim: Healthy, good, and humane living together in a community.
Business ethics
- The study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressedimplies evaluating different ways of tackling ethical issues in business.
- Gray area: Ethical dilemma that cannot be resolved by simply applying ethical standards (e.g., these standards may conflict with the law, or there are no clearly applicable ethical guidelines).
- Ethical codes: corporate guidelines aimed at reducing gray areas.
Reasons for the importance of business ethics
- Power and influence of business organizations in society
- Potential for business organizations to contribute better to
society. - Potential for business organizations to inflict harm on individuals, society and the environment.
- Increasing demands from stakeholders.
- Deficit of business ethics education or training.
- Employees face significant pressure to compromise ethical standards.
- Continued occurrence of ethical infractions, and trust deficit faced by business organizations.
- Business ethics is interesting and rewarding.
Fraud is harmful for business
- Unfair competition – inefficiency of the markets, the economy, etc.
- Risks for not directly fraud-participating business partners.
- Worsened corporate reputation and image
Reasons for ethics deficits
- Structural reasons.
- Missing values towards addressing injustice.
- “Grey zones”.
- Organizational culture mirrors society values – and their evolution.
Sustainability
- Long-term maintenance of systems according to environmental, economic and social considerations.
Sustainability is the destination, an end-state, and sustainable development is a means of getting there
Ethical theories are …
• … the rules and principles that determine right and
wrong for any given situation.
Normative ethical theories …
• … propose to prescribe the morally correct way of
Descriptive ethical theories
seek to describe how ethics decisions are actually
made in business ‘
Normative ethical theories – US vs. Europe
• Notable differences between Anglo-American and European
approaches based on philosophical arguments.
• Individual vs. institutional morality:
- US-»more individualistic perspective on morality
- Europe-»focus on broader economic and governing institutions
• Accepting vs. questioning capitalism:
- US—>deeper acceptance of capitalist framework
- Europe—>more questioning of ethical justification of capitalism
• Justifying versus applying moral norms:
- US -»focus on application of morality (not questioning)
- Europe —> focus on justification and ethical legitimation of norms
- Europe —> stronger drift towards secularization
Non-Western ethical perspectives (especially Asian) – more based on religion
Ethical absolutism
The are eternal, universally applicable moral principles.
Right and wrong are objective qualities that can be categorically determined
Typically – “traditional” ethical theories
Ethical relativism
Morality is context-dependent and subjective.
No universal right and wrongs that can be rationally determined – they depend on the person making the decisions and surrounding culture
Typically – “contemporary” ethical theories
Descriptive relativism does NOT accept that different sets of beliefs can equality eight, but accepts that various cultures have different ethics (critical perspective, but avoiding “cultural supremacy I colonialism / imperialism)
Ethical pluralism
• Middle ground between ethical absolutism and relativism
Cognitivism
Claim to know “right from wrong”.
Objective moral truths which can be known
Non-cognitivism
- Objective assessment of moral belief is not possible, as everything is subjective.
- Social nature of morality relevance of group attitudes.
- Cultural moral relativism.
Non-consequentalism (deontological ethics)
Having rules or principles which are applies to decide how to act in any given situation (principles are what counts, no matter the consequences).
Consequentialism
Assessing moral right or wrong in terms of the consequences of actions (consequences are what counts, no matter the principles).
Natural rights
- Certainbasic,important,unalienable entitlements that should be protected in every single action.
- Based on consensus about nature of human dignity.
- Strongly based on Western view of morality.
- Example: Universal Declaration of Human rights (1948).
Theories of justice
- The simultaneously fair treatment of individuals in a given situation, with the result that everybody gets what they deserve
- Fair procedures (procedural justice) (e.g.,“equal opportunities”)
- Fair outcomes (distributive justice) (e.g.,“minimum wage”)
- Example: John Rawls’s “Theory of Justice” (1971): [1921-2002]
- Concept of “veil of ignorance”
- Principle of equality of opportunity (procedural justice) - Difference principle (distributive justice)
Confucius and Aristotle
Key question: is it ethical to check every single action according to its outcome?
- Virtue ethics contends that morally correct actions are those undertaken by actors with virtuous characters.
- Therefore, the formation of a virtuous character is the first step towards morally correct behaviour
Acquired traits that define a virtuous character
- Intellectual virtues.
- Moral virtues