Business Ethics and SENIOR

HIGH
Social Responsibility SCHOOL

Module
Philosophies Reflected into
Business Practices 11
Quarter 3

Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

Business Ethics and Social Responsibility- Grade 12
Quarter 3 – Module 11:Philosophies Reflected into Business Practices
First Edition, 2020

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Business Ethics
and Social SENIOR
HIGH
Responsibility SCHOOL

Module

11
Quarter 3

Philosophies Reflected
into Business Practices
Introductory Message

For the Facilitator:

Welcome to the Senior High School – on Philosophies Reflected into Business

Practices!

This Self-Learning Module was collaboratively designed, developed, and

reviewed by educators from the Schools Division Office of Pasig City headed by its
Officer-in-Charge Schools Division Superintendent, Ma. Evalou Concepcion A.
Agustin, in partnership with the City Government of Pasig through its mayor,
Honorable Victor Ma. Regis N. Sotto.The writers utilized the standards set by the K
to 12 Curriculum using the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC)in
developing this instructional resource.

This learning material hopes to engage the learners in guided and

independent learning activities at their own pace and time. Further, this also aims
to help learners acquire the needed 21st-century skills especially the 5 Cs, namely:
Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Character while
taking into consideration their needs and circumstances.

In addition to the material in the main text, you will also see this box in the
body of the module:

Notes to the Teacher

This contains helpful tips or strategies
that will help you in guiding the learners.

As a facilitator, you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this
module. You also need to keep track of the learners' progress while allowing them
to manage their own learning. Moreover, you are expected to encourage and assist
the learners as they do the tasks included in the module.
 For the Learner:

Welcome to the Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Self-Learning

Module on Philosophies Reflected into Business Practices!

This module was designed to provide you with fun and meaningful
opportunities for guided and independent learning at your own pace and time. You
will be enabled to process the contents of the learning material while being an
active learner.

This module has the following parts and corresponding icons:

Expectations – This points to the set of knowledge and skills

that you will learn after completing the module.

Pretest - This measures your prior knowledge about the lesson

at hand.

Recap - This part of the module provides a review of concepts

and skills that you already knowabout a previous lesson.

Lesson- This section discusses the topic in the module.

Activities - This is a set of activities that you need to perform.

Wrap-Up- This section summarizes the concepts and

application of the lesson.

Valuing- This part integrates a desirable moral value in the

lesson.

Posttest - This measures how much you have learned from the
entire module.
 EXPECTATIONS

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. identify the classical philosophies and philosophers;

2. describe classical philosophies’ implications for business principles
and practices and;
3. compare and contrast classical philosophies in relation to business
settings.

PRETEST

Directions: Write the letter corresponding to the quotation or definition of

each item. Write the answer on your answer sheet.

1. The ability to choose for oneself A. Responsibility

between right and wrong and to
answer for one’s conduct and obligations.

2. Adherence to moral and ethical principles; B. Moderation

The soundness of moral character;
firm adherence to a code.

3. An act of giving particular attention; C. Courage

to hold in high or special regard

4. Mental or moral strength to venture, D. Respect

persevere, and withstand danger,
fear, or difficulty.

5. Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries E. Integrity

so much as you think they deserve.
 RECAP

Directions: Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the answer on your
answer sheet.

1. What was the Socratic method?

A. something that Socrates came up with
B. a way of studying issues and problems
C. a question and answer technique
D. all of the above

2. How do we know about Socrates and what his philosophies were?

A. by reading the books he wrote
B. by studying the writings of Plato who recorded many of Socrates ideas
C. by readings the histories of Athens
D. by studying Socrate’s paintings

3. Heraclitus_
A. believed that the world was made up of tiny "atoms"
B. believed that the world was made from water
C. believed that change has a form that underlies all reality
D. believed that there was ultimate force ruling the universe

4. The dominating philosophical school in medieval Europe is ____.

A. existentialism
B. atomism
C. scholasticism
D. hedonism

5. Which of the following is an important American school of philosophy

whose members were Peirce, James, and Dewey?
A. Positivism
B. Phenomenology
C. idealism
D. pragmatism
 LESSON

The Classical Philosophers and Their Philosophies

Plato
Being inspired in the field of Mathematics, Plato held
that moral values are objective in the sense that they
exist in a spirit–like a realm beyond subjective human
conventions. He held that they are absolute, eternal,
and universal that applies to rational creatures
around the world and throughout a time when we
Source:EncyclopediaBritannic
a
look at numbers and Mathematical relations, such as
1+1=2. They seem to be timeless and unchanging concepts that applies
everywhere in the universe. Humans do not invent numbers and cannot
alter them. Plato explained the eternal character of mathematics by stating
that they are abstract, spirit–like entities which for him, moral values are
spiritual objects. He largely shares the teaching of his master, Socrates, to
make all virtue intellectual, a doctrine expressed in the formula, virtue is
knowledge; which is tantamount to this other vice is ignorance, or an
erroneous view. Whence, the conclusion is inevitable: No evil deed is willfully
done; and therefore, no man is to blame for being wicked (Coppens, 1895).

Aristotle
The ethics of Aristotle are teleological (from the Greek
telos, which means “end“). He is concerned with
actions, not as being right in itself irrespective of any
other consideration, but with action as conductive to
man’s good. What conducive to the attainment of his
good or end will be a “right” action on man’s part; the
Source:Niki Kitsantonis
action that is opposed to the attainment of his true
good will be a “wrong” action.“Every art and inquiry, every action and choice
seems to aim at some good; whence, the good has rightly been defined as
that at which all things aim. “Aristotle sets himself to discover what this
good is and what the science corresponding to it is (Copleston, 1993).

To him, virtues are good habits that we acquire, which regulate

emotions. Let’s say in response to a natural feeling of fear, one should
develop the virtue of courage, which allows a person to be firm when facing
danger or fear. Analyzing 11 specific virtues (namely: courage, temperance,
liberated, magnificence, honor, good temper, friendliness, truthfulness, wit,
friendship, and justice), He argued that most virtues fall at a mean between
more extreme character traits. If one does not have enough courage, he/she
will develop the disposition of rashness, which is also a vice. According to
him, it is not an easy task to find the perfect mean between extreme
character traits. In fact, everyone needs assistance from reason to do this
(Fieser, 2003).

Immanuel Kant
Kantian Ethics emphasizes a single principle of
duty. Influenced by Purendorf, Kant agreed that we
have moral duties to oneself and others such as
developing one's talents and keeping our promises
to others. However, he argued that there is one
foundational principle of duties that encompasses
Source:Johann Gottlieb Becker our particular duties. It is a single, self-evident
principle of reason that he calls the “categorical
imperative.” To him, the categorical imperative is fundamentally different
from hypothetical imperatives that hinge on some personal desire that we
have. Let’s say, “if you want to get a good job, then you ought to go to
college”. By contrast, a categorical imperative simply mandates an action,
irrespective of one’s personal desires, such as “you ought to do X”. He gives
four versions of the categorical imperative, but one is especially direct: treat
people as an end, and never as a means to an end. That is, we should treat
people with dignity, and never use them as mere instruments.

Augustine
St. Augustine’s ethic has this in common with what
one might call the typical Greek ethic; that is,
eudaemonistic in character, which proposes an end
for human conduct—happiness. But this
happiness is to be found only in God. His ethics is
primarily an ethic of love: it is by the will that man
reaches out toward God and finally takes
Source: Tomás Giner
possession of and enjoys him. He is an extreme
intentionalist in ethics.

In De Sermone Domini in Monte (Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon

on the Mount 1.12.34), he identifies three necessary conditions for
committing a sin: receiving an evil suggestion, taking pleasure in the thought
of performing the activities suggested, and consenting to perform the act.
Thus in his view, whether one commits sin is in no way dependent on
whether the contemplated action. Even when the action is carried out, it is
the intention (understand as a suggestion, pleasure, and consent) rather
than the action itself, or its consequence, that is sinful (Copleston, 1993;
Matthew, 1998).

St. Thomas Aquinas

The moral philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas involves
a merger of at least two apparently disparate
traditions: Aristotelian eudaimonism and Christian
theology. On the one hand, Aquinas follows Aristotle in
thinking that an act is good or bad depending on
whether it contributes to or deters us from our proper
human end-the telos is eudaimonia, or happiness,
Source: Gina Ciliberto
where “happiness” is understood in terms of
completion, perfection. Achieving happiness, however, requires a range of
intellectual and moral virtues that enable us to understand the nature of
happiness and motivate us to seek it in a reliable and consistent way. On
the other hand, St. Thomas’s moral theory is seen to move on a different
plane from that of Aristotle. Aristotle may have said that the good of man
consists in the consideration of the speculative sciences, but he was
speaking of imperfection happiness, such as is attainable in this life.
According to Aquinas, perfect happiness, the ultimate end, is not to be
found in any created thing, but only in God, who is Himself the supreme
and infinite good. God is the universal good in the concrete, and though He
is the end of all things, of both rational and irrational creatures, it is only
rational creatures that can attain this final good by way of knowledge and
love: and who can attain the vision of God in which alone perfect happiness
lies.

Different Philosophies’ Implications for Business Principles

and Practices.

Ethics is a philosophical term derived from the Greek word “ethos”

meaning character or custom. A principle that tells us the right thing to do,
or what things are worth doing; standards governing behavior; broader-
based, value–driven rules (Sims, 1992; Jansen and von Glinow, 1985).

It is considered a normative science because it is concerned with the

systematic study of the norms of human conduct, as distinguished from
formal sciences such as Mathematics, Physical sciences such as Chemistry
and Physics, and Empirical sciences such as Economics and Psychology. It
also involves a systematic search for moral principles and norms that are
used to justify our moral judgement.
 Ethics can be distinguished from morality. While morality deals with
the principles of right or wrong conduct in general, ethics is concerned with
standards of conduct acceptable to a group, a profession, or members of an
organization. Alternatively, organizational ethics can be understood as
elaborations of pre-existing broader moral principles, which include
standards of behavior and are designed to respond to the particular
dilemmas presented by the context (Sinclair, 1993).

Since ethics is universal and the same for all, companies should obey
the same ethical rules wherever they operate. For instance, they should
respect the right of workers, not engage in bribery, protect the environment,
and not undermine the local culture. There are three levels of analysis
appropriate to business ethics: (1) that of the system of free enterprise as
such; (2) that of the corporation; and (3) that of the individual within the
corporation. The starting point is usually the basic ethical norms on which
the majority of people agree. There are basic norms necessary for the
conduct of business such as keeping promises, honoring contracts, telling
the truth, and respecting the lives and integrity of those with whom one
engages in business.

The history of ethics in business makes it evident that the above

ethical doctrine has influenced the thinking of the morality of business. We
can imagine the earliest bartering based on the principle of equal exchange.
Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, wrote of justice being the exchange of
equals for equals and in the Politics, he discusses “The art of acquisition,”
trade, and usury as part of the ethics of the household.

Moving to the modern era, John Locke (1690) developed a defense of

private property as a natural right based on the labor one applies to secure
the good in question. Adam Smith, who wrote A Theory of Moral Sentiments
before he wrote The Wealth of Nations, wrote about the ethics of business as
well as the lack thereof that took place among colluding businessman. David
Hume, John Stuart Mill, and many others wrote on the morality or ethics of
the developing free – enterprise economic system. Karl Maxx developed a
trenchant attack called capitalism, a period of history which he considered
necessary and which he admitted that human productivity had developed
more than during any other period. For him, the problem with capitalism
was the most of the benefits were reaped by the few when there was enough
to better a lot of all. All of these writers have added to the history of ethics in
business and their thoughts have filtered down in various ways to the
general populace (De George, 1994).
 To illustrate how the various ethical doctrines may affect business
practices, let us look at the Aristotelian approach which will help us to talk
and think about management in a way that permits integrating “good”
ethical habits into management practice. Put differently, as expressed in the
familiar maxim, “ A way of seeing is also a way of not seeing.” at the heart of
this current study is a pedagogy that provides management students an
Aristotelian way of seeing what management is providing students with a
lens drawn from virtue theory, to use alongside their lenses of managerial
functions and roles promises to help students integrate moral theory into
general management thinking and practice. Concretely, from Aristotle’s
assertion that the purpose of life is to maximize happiness and that
happiness can only be maximized by practicing virtue in community. It
follows that how we manage our communities should be of main concern.
Whereas for Aristotle ethics culminated in politics, we are suggesting that
today’s ethics culminates in management, as managers play a critical role in
society (Dyck and Kleyse, 2001).

Comparing Classical Philosophies in Relation to the Business

Settings

A concrete example can be given for how the various moral

philosophers’ views get applied in day-to-day business situations.

Let us take the case of “insider trading.” Businessman A—major

stockholder of a prosperous and fast-rising company has access to
information than that of a smaller and less financially sound competitor—
Company B which was going to be absorbed by a third competitor—
Company C.

Businessman A’s source was the son of the major stockholder of

Company B. This son was a self – confessed hater of his father. The son gave
the information to Businessman A so that Businessman A could buy shares
of Company B while the price was still relatively low. The price of Company
B’s shares was sure to go up after its takeover by a bigger, more financially
stable company was made public. The son offered to give this piece of
information on the understanding that businessman A would share with
him the big profit he was bound to make. After the takeover, Company B
would surely wind up (Gomez, 1992).

One’s ethical viewpoint will definitely “color” one’s opinion on whether

the actions described above can be considered ethical or not. For instance, a
Platonist would consider it a deviation, a withdrawal from the “good”, and
hence, would consider it unethical. If one takes the utilitarian view, one
might consider such actions acceptable, as they provide net benefits to both
businessmen A and the source of insider information. A Kantian would say
that both parties’ conduct cannot be set up as a universal law and are
immoral. An Aristotelian or virtue ethicist would definitely consider both
actions as unconscionable, as virtues—such as loyalty, fairness temperance,
justice – are clearly lacking or absent.

This and other examples can be offered. What is important is that, in

any situation, the decision-maker takes on a comprehensive ethical
framework, one that minimizes the gaps or incompatibilities among the
various ethical viewpoints, one that hopefully leads to the good of the
human persons, to his perfect human flourishing or eudaimonia. This skill
we hope to achieve by the end of this module.

ACTIVITIES

Directions: Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the answer on your
answer sheet.

1. According to Socrates, the soul can achieve wisdom only when

A. Using the senses
B. The body is invited to conduct an inquiry
C. She has as little as possible to do with the body
D. She enters the realm of the physical

2. According to Socrates, if we would have pure knowledge of anything, we

must
A. Overwhelm the senses
B. Satisfy our physical needs
C. Embrace the world
D. Be quit of the body

3. According to Socrates, for true philosophers who are eager to release the
soul from the body, death is
A. Something to celebrate
B. A thing to fear
C. The end of wisdom
D. The end of the search
4. According to Socrates, the blissful, pure, immortal realm of the soul is
called
A. Heaven
B. The Perfection of the senses
C. Pleasure
D. Wisdom

5. What was the Socratic Method?

A. Something that Socrates came up with
B. A way of studying issues and problems
C. A question and answer technique
D. All of the above

WRAP-UP

Philosophers discuss the big ideas: Why are we here? What is the best
way to live? Whether you realize it or not, you approach life in the same way
as one of the leading philosophers. Which Philosophical style you are likely
following? Make sure to write the answer on your answer sheet.

VALUING

Directions: Put a checkmark under "A" or "D" depending on whether you

“Agree” or “Disagree” with the statement. Write the answer on your answer
sheet.
Agree Disagree

It really bothers me when someone ignores or breaks

one of the company rules.

I get so irritated when one of the bureaucrats at the

office insists on following the rules when there just is
not any point to it.
“You have always got to ask ‘How will this benefit us
in the long run?’ I do not believe in short term
solutions.

“I always put myself in the other guy’s shoes. It is not

that I will always give in if he is hurt, but I have to
know how he feels.

“I just know when something’s wrong. It is as if I can

smell it. Do not ask me how I know, but I am hardly
ever wrong.”

I consider the feelings of all people who will be

affected by my actions or decisions.

POSTTEST

Directions: Identify the following statement. Write the answer on your

answer sheet.

1. He argues that virtues are good habits that we acquire, which

regulated our emotions.
2. He emphasized a single principle of duty, agreed that we have moral
duties to oneself and others.
3. He held that moral values are objective in the sense that they exist in
a spirit–like a realm beyond subjective human conventions.
4. He identifies three necessary and sufficient conditions for committing
a sin.
5. He involves a merger of at least two apparently disparate traditions:
Aristotelian eudaimonism and Christian theology.
 KEY TO CORRECTION

References
Kitsantonis, Niki. “Greek Archaeologist Says He Has Found Aristotle's
Tomb.” The New York Times. The New York Times, May 26, 2016.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/world/europe/greece-
aristotle-tomb.html.

Meinwald, Constance C. “Plato.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia

Britannica, inc., March 31, 2020.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plato.

ophope.org. Accessed September 4, 2020.

https://ophope.org/spirituality/4-lessons-from-saint-thomas-aquinas-
that-still-apply-to-our-lives-today/.

Racelis, Aliza. Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. Manila: Rex Book
Store, 2017.

“Reusing Content Outside Wikimedia.” Commons. Accessed September 4,

2020.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outs
ide_Wikimedia.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, September 1, 2020.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo.