Business Ethics

Polemical – work with theories and ideas, with opposites, where the ideas
are at war with each other
Class 1:
 Philosophy – The love of Wisdom / Western Society: Analytical tool
o Philo – Love (Phileo – family, friendship love)
o Agape – God’s love, unconditional love
o Eros – Romantic love, sensual love
o Sophy – Wisdom
 600 B.C – Pythagoras
 Pythagoras – everything in the universe is a number, everything is
giving off a vibration
o Bringing the soul into harmony with Nature
 Analytical Tool – analysis of arguments
 Plato – love the truth, 2 kinds of things in the world – the real and
perceptible world of change, imperfect but formed after the perfect
world
 Aristotle – 1st causes/ 1st principles
 Metaphysics – What is real, what is exists in the world – diagnostic
tool
 Epistemology – about knowledge
o 1. What do we know?
o 2. How do we know it?
 Empiricism – World of the senses
 Rationalism – World of Reasoning
 Axiology – Study of worth / value
o Aesthetics
o Ethics
 Theoretical
  Applied
 We are in an applied Ethics class
 Deontological – Deontology
o Deon – Rule, Law
o “Don’t you know the rules?” – Means to the good life it to follow
the rules
o Black and White, clear cute
o Kant –
o Ross –
 Teleological – Teleology
o Telos – end
 Not the physical end but a knowledge end (purpose/goal)
 Concept of fulfillment at the end
o Universe is an orderly reality, everything has a purpose or design
o From antiquity to 1859 – everything has design purpose, and this
is the way nature
o 1859 – Charles Darwin, origin of the species
o Aristotle – Virtual Ethics
o Utilitarianism –distortion of Aristotle virtual ethics, pleasure
based ethical system which calls for the greatest good for the
greatest number
 A-teleological -- partial of negation
o Evolutionary theory – result of chaos, mutation, chance
Socio Economics Theories:
 Collectivism
o The collective is the basic unit of society
o The whole group, communism
o Everyone is equal
 Individualism
o Dominate system, individual is the basis of society
o Speaking of the single individual or the traditional view of family
o Individual has the right to their own ends, individual rights,
interests, drives

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 o Forms the basis for Capitalism
Economics Level:
 Capitalist –
o Owners of Private Property (real estate, businesses, tools, etc)
o Buyers and sellers determine the market
 Collectivist –
o Communism
 MOP is owned by the state
o Social Democracy
 The people own the means of production
 Individuals get to vote, still have a say
 Voting for leadership to guide their economy
o Moderate Social Democracy
 Individuals get to vote, still have a say
 Voting for leadership to guide their economy
 Some limited ownership
 MOP – Means of Production – everything that needs to produce
something
Class 2:
The Good Life:
 Socrates – 469-399 B.C.
o Natural Philosophy
o Became the most prominent ethical philosopher in history
o Was given to Hemlock, poison – Martyr
Pre-Socratic Philosophy – Pre Socrates
Socratic – After Socrates
ATOM – indivisible particles
3 Followers:
 Antisthenes – student of Socrates / anti-institutions
o Cynicism (Naturalist) – Regretted human artifacts (institutions)

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  Dog Philosophers
 Plato – Platonism
o Radical dualism
o Eudemonism –
 Plato had a disciple named Aristotle, disagreed with Plato
 Aristotle agreed with Eudemonism
 Aristippus – founder of the school known as Hedonism
 Hedon – sensual pleasure
 Rank Hedonism – getting drunk and naked on Friday night
and staying that way until you have to go back to work
 Only one good and supreme good – it is pleasure
o Epicurus was a follower of Aristippus
 Agreed that pleasure is the supreme good, but without
pain
 2 qualifications:
o Without Pain or Anguish
 Hedonism – supreme good in pleasure and only pleasure
 Eudemonism - Well being
 Supreme good – Well Being / flourishing / self-
actualization
o EU- good
o Daimon – spirit
o Required rational thinking
 Both Hedonism and Eudemonism is translated in English to happiness
Sandel –
Introduction of the book:
Market Triumphalism – 1980-2008
Markets are the primary means of achieving the public goods
 Public Good is comparable with the common good
Markets would be whatever you want to sell or pay for

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What is the market exchange between?
Capitalism (voluntary exchange between buyers and sellers)
Collectivism (coercive system, in this system the particular good, quantity,
pricing, controlled by the political mechanism

Collectivism: developed as a reaction to Capitalism

Marxist Communism – Utopia via Carl Marx
Traditional Social Democracy
Moderate Social Democracy
Communist vs Socialism –
 Communist – state owns means of production
 Socialism – people or public owns the means of production

Capitalism: came first prior to Collectivism

New, Social, Liberal Capitalism – 1900 to 2019
 Classical Capitalism plus the welfare state
Classical Capitalism – 1700-1900, based on individual
 Theory of classical liberalism – human beings and human nature
 Natural Rights Theory
Libertarianism Capitalism – Mid 20th Century
 Classical Capitalism
 Minimalist State

Midterm:
 10 pts – closed book, vocabulary – writing a definition – go back
through from the beginning
o Kant’s CI2

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  Essay – open book / open note – ask you questions conceptual nature
to explain or analyze