Besr3ch 090850

Business Ethics /
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Chapter Three
Theory of Ethics
3.1. Introduction to Ethics
What is ethics?
• The study of standards of right or wrong behavior.
(1) What makes an act morally right or wrong (a question of conduct)?
(2) What makes a person or something good or bad (a question of value)?
(3) How to draw the correct conclusion about what we ought to do or
what kind of person we ought to be?
(1) and (2) are theoretical/conceptual questions and (3) is a practical
question about moral reasoning.
Why ethics for organisations?
* A basis for values and visions * To motivate employees
* Perhaps demanded by customers * Part of governance
* For good relationships to stakeholders * Sustainability
* An overall check on plans * To avoid various exposures and risks
* The finance crisis * Managerialism (Robert Locke)

* Money only management * Short term and limited plans and etc
Definition Ethics
Moral philosophy.
Determining rights and wrongs, selecting actions to achieve good results,
evaluating motives.
The achievement of wisdom, choosing actions that are benefical and
acceptable long term; or sustainable. This implies a society focus.
Definition Morals
Moral- Beliefs and behaviour of group. The group can be:
* Nation, or geographical area * Group of nations
* Religious or life view groups, and subgroups * Profession or similar
* Other organisation, e.g. sports, clan, NGO...
Structure of moral action
Person  Action  Consequence
1. Person: What makes a person morally good? Be courageous,
kind, and so on? Do the motive, character, and intention of the
person matter in deciding whether an action is right or wrong?
2. Action: What makes an action morally right? Should the
motive, character, or intention of the actor be taken into
consideration? Should it be solely determined by the
consequences?
3. Consequence: What constitutes a good or bad consequence?
Forms of ethics
1. Metaethics (what is good? etc)

2. Normative ethics (what should we do?)
3. Applied ethics (how do we apply ethics to work and lives?)
4. Moral psychology (the biological and psychological bases)
5. Descriptive ethics (what morals people follow)
Characteristics of Ethical Issues
Moral disagreements are common. Moral issues are often controversial

and open-ended. It is often difficult to arrive at some consensus.
How serious could people disagree with one another? Could the
disagreement be radical and fundamental?
People even disagree about what and how much they disagree.
Theoretical Ethics vs Practical Ethics
• Ethical theories sometimes give no clear-cut answer to specific moral
problems. The top-down approach does not always work.
Examples: euthanasia and abortion.
• Bottom-up approach (Case-based approach):
• Start with an obvious (real or hypothetical) case where we have the strong
intuition or considered judgement that it is morally right or wrong.
• Analogical reasoning: compare it with a problematic case that is structurally
similar and then draw the same conclusion.
• Example: Thomson’s arguments for and Marquis’s argument against
abortion.
3.2. Ethical egoism
• Underlying assumption of most morality: we have “natural” duties to
help others simply because they are people who could be helped or
harmed by what we do.
• Ethical egoism holds that we have no natural duties to others.
• EE:- the normative ethical theory that holds that each person ought to
pursue his or her own self-interest. Our only duty is our duty to
ourselves.
• EE-The well-being of an individual has more weight than the happiness
of society as a whole.
What ethical egoism does not claim
• Does not require that we consider our interests and the interests of
others.
• Does not say that we should avoid helping others.
• Does not imply that pursuing our interests is always what we want to
do.
Positive Argument for Egoism
• Ethical Egoism is compatible with common-sense morality: ethical
egoism is a way of organizing a number of moral principles (simplifying
principle akin to a scientific theory e=mc2 .
• Response: 1) At best E.E. proves that it is usually or mostly to one’s

advantage to follow certain moral principles,
2) Does not really prove that the only or most basic reason for doing
something is egoism
External Criticism of Ethical Egoism
External Criticism of Ethical Egoism

• Egoism justifies what we take to be wicked acts.
-Not an objection the egoist will find compelling.
-Egoist is not concerned with justifying our current moral intuitions.
Internal Criticism of the Theory
• Cannot handle conflicts of interest
-Egoist Response: Only troubling if we believe that ethics must
resolve conflicts such that all can live together harmoniously.
• Ethical egoism is unacceptably arbitrary.
• Me vs. everyone else.
3.2. Ethical subjectivism
ETHICAL SUBJECTIVISM: All moral standards or truths are dependent only
upon the opinions and feelings (not fact) of the utterer making the
subjective moral judgment.
A. With ES, there are moral truths; we can do right and wrong, but who
determines right or wrong is the individual.
EX: Jon is a torturer of small children. He has recently captured a young boy
and has imprisoned him in a small iron box. Jon has begun to poke needles
into his feet and eyes; the boy, will surely a die a slow but painful death. Jon,
being an ES, thinks he is in the right because there is no objective truth to
the matter, your ethics is just that your ethics.
cont...
B. ES is a theory about the nature of our moral judgments, which claims
that these judgments are an expression only of our personal feelings
and/or opinions.
C. Illustration
cont....
D. NOT A FACT: It may be a fact that a given group is homosexual
(descriptive), but it is not a fact that they are good or bad (normative).
E. ES-contends that moral evaluation is dependent only upon subjective
moral judgments, not upon inter-subjective or objective moral
judgments.
1. Subjective Judgment: A moral judgment is subjective if its truth
depends on whether or not it conforms to the tastes, attitudes, beliefs,
preferences of the utterer.
a. “I think Olives taste disgusting” (a matter of taste)
b. “I think Baseball is the best sport” (a matter of preference)
cont...
2. Inter-subjective Judgment: A moral judgment is inter-subjective if its
truth depends on whether or not it conforms to the beliefs, attitudes, and
conventions of the group to which the utterer belongs.
a. “Her dress is so out of style” (a matter of societal taste)
b. “Homosexuals should not marry (a matter of societal opinion)
3. Objective Judgment: A moral judgment is objective if its truth depends
upon something independent of the belief of any individual or group.
a. EX1: “Texas is 268,601 square miles” (empirical truth)
b. EX2: “2+2=4” (a priori truth)
Subjectivism as distinct from:
A. Tolerance
B. Ethical Skepticism
ES not the same as being skeptical; skeptics are characterized by their
agnosticism. Subjectivists have a believed position.

Besr3ch 090850

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Besr3ch 090850

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Besr3ch 090850

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Business Ethics /

* Perhaps demanded by customers * Part of governance

* For good relationships to stakeholders * Sustainability

* An overall check on plans * To avoid various exposures and risks

* The finance crisis * Managerialism (Robert Locke)

1. Metaethics (what is good? etc)

Moral disagreements are common. Moral issues are often controversial

• Does not say that we should avoid helping others.

• Response: 1) At best E.E. proves that it is usually or mostly to one’s

External Criticism of Ethical Egoism

You might also like