Business Ethics Overview

Business Ethics

• Focuses on philosophical foundations of business ethics
• Explores concrete applications of business ethics to daily business life
• Introduces ethical theories like deontology, consequentialism (including utilitarianism), and virtue ethics
• Examines how ethical theories relate to everyday choices and prominent ethical theories
• Notes that ethics examines human behavior and practical application
• Argues that ethics is a practical discipline, helping one achieve human excellence and guiding virtuous conduct in the contexts of flourishing, actions, and decision-making.

Table of Contents

• Covers topics like philosophical frameworks for business ethics, defining ethics, practical aspects of ethics, ethics in the context of lives, perspectives on human action, deontological ethics, consequentialism, utilitarianism, the principle of utility, limits of principle of utility, the trolley dilemma, virtue ethics, comparing ethical theories, and ethics in business.

Chapter 1: Philosophical Frameworks for Business Ethics

• Introduces the philosophical foundations of business ethics, with a focus on concrete applications.
• Discusses what ethics means to you in a class brainstorming activity.
• Defines ethics as rooted in Greek word "ethos" meaning behavior.
• Highlights three key characteristics of ethics: ethics is part of philosophy, focuses on human behavior, and has practical methodology and practical ends.
• Separates ethics (a rational, systematic approach to morality) from moral experience (pre-philosophical).
• Examines whether all actions are free, distinguishing actions under our control (moral acts) from those not under our control (acts of man).
• Outlines different perspectives on human action, considering the context of the action.

Deontological Ethics

• Examines deontological ethics as rooted in "duty" and focused on categorical imperatives to be used in all scenarios.
• Includes the Formula of Universal Law (act only on that maxim you can universalize) and the Formula of Humanity (treat humanity as an end, not merely as a means).

Consequentialism and Utilitarianism

• Explains consequentialism as evaluating actions based on their consequences, particularly focusing on utilitarianism as a prominent consequentialist approach
• Utilitarianism seeks the greatest good for the greatest number, a Principle of Utility to bring about this outcome, and famous issues like Doctor's Dilemma and Trolley Dilemma to present the limits of this principle
• Highlights ethical dilemmas to show limits of utilitarianism.

Virtue Ethics

• Positions virtue ethics as a method to evaluate actions based on the character traits and flourishing of the individual and the society
• Defines virtue ethics as focusing on developing virtuous character and understanding the concept of eudaimonia (flourishing) and the doctrine of the mean, a golden midpoint between excess and deficiency of actions
• Outlines the importance of virtues, like courage, temperance and justice, in leading a flourishing life
• Explores the significance of virtues in acquiring a virtuous life, with a review of Plato's cardinal virtues- practical wisdom, justice, courage and temperance.

Ethics as a guide to human excellence

• Reviews different ethical theories
• Highlights how ethics can be a guide to human excellence
• Outlines the relationship between ethics, business, personal, and social.

About the Author

• Marta Rocchi is an Assistant Professor in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics at DCU Business School.
• She holds a PhD and MSc in Economics, and specialization in the ethics of finance.