This textbook not only provides the student with a solid foundation in ethics, but introduces students to the most important themes relevant to business today. Issues such as human rights violation down in the supply chain, the effect business has on nature and the environment, and inclusiveness are each discussed in separate chapters, which discuss their importance, but also their challenges. While there are numerous business ethics textbooks, few take a philosophical approach to business ethics. However, without introducing philosophical ethics, discussions about business ethics are bound to get stuck in fallacies and paradoxes. This textbook therefore fills an important societal gap by providing an introduction to profound philosophical issues in clear language at a philosophically high, but accessible level.
Author(s): Wim Dubbink, Willem van der Deijl
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 281
Tags: Business Ethics; Business And Management; General; Ethics
Preface
Contents
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
Contributors
Chapter 1: What Is Business Ethics?
1.1 Two Cases
1.2 What Is Philosophy?
1.3 What Is Business Ethics?
References
Chapter 2: Morality: When Does it Come into Play?
2.1 Two Cases
2.2 Problems of Action, Judgments and Assessment Frameworks
2.3 A Formal Definition of Morality
2.3.1 Two Paradoxes
2.4 Moral Issues Arising from Violation of Rights
2.4.1 Moral Rights
2.5 Moral Issues Arise Through an Orientation Toward Good
2.5.1 Doing Good
2.5.2 What Is Good?
2.5.3 How Far Should You Go?
2.6 Moral Questions Arising from Breaking Through Boundaries in Thinking
2.6.1 Wrong Thinking?
2.6.2 The Problem with Shkreli’s Thinking
2.7 Moral Issues Arising from Character
2.7.1 Virtues
2.8 What We Now Know About Morality
References
Chapter 3: The Grounding of Ethics and Business Ethics
3.1 Three Cases
3.2 From Normative Ethics to the Grounding of Morality
3.3 What Is Reflection on the Grounding of Morality About?
3.4 Morality to Enable Us to Live Together
3.4.1 A Free Society
3.4.2 Self-Evident Truths
3.5 Morality in Relation to Being a Person
3.5.1 The Value of Being a Person
3.5.2 The Person as a Creation of the Self
3.5.3 Self-Discipline
3.6 Grounds for Morality 1: Free Will
3.6.1 The Compatibilist Response
3.6.2 The Affirmative Response
3.7 Ground for Morality 2: The Specter of Relativism
3.7.1 Types of Relativists
3.7.2 Discretion
3.8 From Grounding to Normative Moral Reflection
References
Chapter 4: Moral Reasons
4.1 Moral Problems
4.1.1 Motivations and Reasons
4.1.2 Motivational Problems and Substantive Problems
4.1.3 Three Types of Moral Reasons
4.2 Consequences
4.2.1 Economic Value and Economic Harm
4.2.2 Non-economic Value
4.2.3 Equality and Inequality
4.3 Moral Principles
4.3.1 Human Rights
4.3.2 Respect
4.3.3 What If Everyone Did That?
4.4 Moral Virtues
References
Chapter 5: Corporate Responsibility and the Morality of the Market
5.1 Three Cases
5.2 Responsibility for Market Parties
5.2.1 Responsibility
5.3 Questions Regarding Responsibility
5.3.1 Limits to Market Participant Responsibility
5.4 Responsibility of Market Participants Under Discussion
5.4.1 Two Frequently Heard Arguments
5.5 Market Morality as a Specific Kind of Morality
5.5.1 Minimal Market Morality
5.6 Discussions on the Substance of Market Morality
5.6.1 Limits to the Business Mindset
References
Chapter 6: Different Views on the Social Responsibility of Corporations
6.1 Two Cases
6.2 What Is CSR?
6.3 The Homann-Friedman Doctrine on CSR
6.3.1 Democracy and the Division of Labor
6.3.2 Baumol: Political Duty Is Part of Minimum Morality
6.4 The CSR Doctrine
6.4.1 Limits to Differentiation
6.4.2 Working Rule of Law
6.4.3 Industrial Complexes
6.4.4 Neo-liberal Ideology
6.4.5 CSR and Democracy
6.5 Criteria for CSR and Their Application
6.6 Operational Ways of Looking at CSR
6.6.1 The Shareholder Theory
6.6.2 The Stakeholder Theory
6.6.2.1 The Weighing of Stakeholders
6.6.2.2 Pragmatic or Prudent Motivations
6.6.3 The Corporate Citizen Approach
6.6.3.1 Loopholes in the Law
6.6.3.2 Rights That Are Difficult to Protect by Law
6.6.3.3 Operating in Countries with Weak Governments
6.6.4 The Market Failure Approach
6.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: “And What Do You Think, as a Professional?”: On Personal and Professional Responsibility in Business
7.1 Introduction
7.2 What Does it Mean to Be a Professional in a Company?
7.2.1 Profession and Business: Goal-Oriented, But Towards Which Goal?
7.2.2 What Is a Professional?
7.3 Professional and Personal Responsibility
7.4 Professional and Personal Responsibility in a Corporate Context
7.4.1 Free Space for Debate and Dialogue
7.4.2 Whistleblowers
7.4.3 The Problem of Many Hands
7.5 Conclusion: All Hands on Deck?
References
Chapter 8: Justice at Work
8.1 Inequality and Companies
8.2 Dividing Jobs2
8.2.1 Choosing Between the Three Principles
8.3 Determining Salaries
8.4 Conclusion
References
Chapter 9: Discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion
9.1 Two cases1
9.2 Discrimination
9.3 Diversity and Inclusion
9.4 Socio-historical Context
9.4.1 Feminism
9.4.2 Class Struggle and Socio-economic Inequality
9.4.3 The Civil Rights Movement and (De)colonization
9.5 Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: Privacy and Surveillance
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Consent and Asymmetry
10.3 Privacy
10.4 A Revenue Model Based on Attention
10.5 Surveillance Capitalism
10.6 Conclusion
References
Chapter 11: Sustainability and Environment
11.1 Introduction
11.2 What Is Sustainability?
11.2.1 The Three Legged Stool Model
11.3 A Critical Evaluation of the Common Interpretation
11.3.1 Sustainability and Justice
11.4 Questions Concerning Compensation for Damages
11.4.1 Strong and Weak Sustainability
11.5 The Precautionary Principle
11.6 Intergenerational Justice
11.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 12: Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Human Rights
12.3 A Business Ethics Framework– Complicity
12.4 Influence and Positive Duty
12.4.1 A Morally Meaningful Relationship
12.4.2 The Ability to Make a Difference
12.4.3 Low Costs
12.4.4 Significant Threat
12.5 Conclusion
References
Chapter 13: Advertising Ethics
13.1 Introduction
13.2 The Ethics of Advertising
13.2.1 Manipulation
13.3 Cognitive Manipulation in Advertising
13.3.1 Follow-up Case 13.1: Misleading Environmental Claim by Travel Company TUI
13.4 Affective Manipulation in Advertising
13.4.1 How Advertisers Create Desires
13.4.2 Stereotyping and Respect for the Person
13.5 Social Media Advertising
13.5.1 Uncertainty About Whether Something Involves Advertising
13.5.2 Ethical Aspects of Online Behavioral Advertising
13.6 Advertising, Health and the Limits to Growth
13.6.1 Advertising and the Limits to Growth
13.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 14: Tax Avoidance as a Moral Issue
14.1 Two Cases
14.2 Tax Avoidance as a Moral Issue
14.3 Why Do We Pay Taxes and What Do We Pay Taxes On?
14.4 Tax Avoidance
14.5 Tax Avoidance Goes with a Global Networking Society
14.6 Tax Avoidance: Ethical Contra Arguments
14.7 Government, Businesses and Tax Industry Change
References
Chapter 15: Meaningful Work
15.1 Job Creation
15.2 Dignified Work
15.3 Autonomy and Democracy at Work
15.4 Conclusion
References
Chapter 16: Animal Business, a Blind Spot of Companies
16.1 Philosophical Foundation
16.1.1 Consequences
16.1.2 Principles
16.1.3 Virtues
16.2 Impact and Context
16.3 Biological Arguments
16.4 Interests of Animals
16.4.1 Animal Welfare
16.4.2 Right to Continue Living
16.4.3 Freedom and Captivity
16.5 Animals and CSR
16.5.1 Animal Rights, Animals as Stakeholders, and Externalities for Animals
16.5.2 Animals as Workers
16.5.3 Five Freedoms
16.5.4 Fourteen Requirements
16.6 Concrete Issues for Different Sectors
16.6.1 Livestock Industry
16.6.2 Fur, Leather, and Wool Industry
16.6.3 Fishing
16.6.4 Insect Culture
16.6.5 Entertainment Industry
16.6.6 Animal Experiments
16.6.7 Indirect Impact on Animals
References
Glossary
