Dr hab.

Janusz Reichel

Faculty of Management UŁ

Business ethics janusz.reichel@uni.lodz.pl

Room: 37
Ethical theories
Ethical theories (extreme positions)

• Ethical absolutism
• Ethical relativism
Ethical absolutism

• Ethical absolutism claims that there are eternal,

universally applicable moral principles.
• Right or wrong are objective qualities that can be
rationally determine (Cognitivism).
Ethical relativism

• Ethical relativism claims that morality is context-

dependent and subjective.
• There are no universal right and wrong that can be
rationally determined (Non-cognitivism).
• Right and wrong depends on the person making the
decision and the culture in which they are located.
Traditional ethical theories (absolutist in intention)

• Consequentialist theories
• Non-consequentialist theories

Motivation/
Action Outcomes
Principles

Non-consequentialist ethics Consequentialist ethics

Consequentialist theories (teleological theories –
(Greek: ‘goal’)
• Egoism
• An action is morally right if the decision maker freely decides in order to
pursue either their (short term) desires or their (long term) interests.
• Utilitarianism
• An action is morally right if it results in the greatest amount of good for the
greatest amount of people affected by the action.
• Right/wrong = pleasure/pain or happiness/unhappiness
• Cost-benefit analysis
Non-consequentialist theories 1/2

• Ethics of duties
• Some religious ethics
• There are principles that are right and following them is right
• Kant’s ethics of duties
• Categorical imperative:
• 1. Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.
• 2. Act so as you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a
means only.
Non-consequentialist theories 2/2

• Rights and justice

• Natural rights are certain basic, important, unalienable entitlements that
should be respected and protected in every single action (rights to life,
freedom, property, …).
• Justice can be defined as the simultaneously fair treatment of individuals in
a given situation with the result that everybody gets what they deserve.
Consequentialists vs Non-Consequentialists
Major normative theories in business ethics
Egoism Utilitarianism Ethics of duties Rights and justice

Contributors Adam Smith. Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant. John Locke, John
John Stuart Mill. Rawls.

Focus Individual desires or Collective welfare. Duties. Rights.

interests.

Rules Maximization of Act/rule Categorical Respect for human

desires/self utilitarianism. imperative. beings.
interest.

Concept of human Man as an actor Man is controlled by Man is a rational Man is a being that
beings with limited avoidance of moral actor. is distinguished
knowledge and pain and gain of by dignity.
objectives. pleasure
('hedonist').

Type Consequentialist Consequentialist Non- Non-

consequentialist consequentialist
Business ethics

Dr hab. Janusz Reichel

Faculty of Management UŁ
janusz.reichel@uni.lodz.pl
Room: 37