Description
Book SynopsisRichard T. De George is University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the International Center for Ethics in Business at the University of Kansas. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and he has been a research fellow at Yale University, Columbia University, Stanford University, and the Hoover Institution. He was the Charles J. Dirksen Professor of Business Ethics at Santa Clara University in 1986, and a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Business at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland in 1985.
He is the author of over 200 articles and the author or editor of twenty books, including The Ethics of Information Technology and Business (2003); Business Ethics (also available in Japanese, Russian, Serbian and Chinese); and Competing With Integrity in International Business (1993), also translated into Chinese. He has been the President of several academic organizations, including the American Philosophi
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Introduction
Chapter 1: Ethics and Business 1
Horatio Alger and Stock Options 1
The Myth of Amoral Business 3
The Relation of Business and Morality 5
Business Ethics and Ethics 9
The Case of the Collapsed Mine 18
Study Questions 20
Moral Reasoning In Business
Chapter 2: Conventional Morality and Ethical
Relativism 21
Purchasing Abroad: A Case Study 21
The Levels of Moral Development 22
Subjective and Objective Morality 24
Descriptive Relativism 26
Normative Ethical Relativism 27
Moral Absolutism 31
Moral Pluralism 32
Pluralism and American Business 33
Pluralism and International Business 33
Pluralism, Business, and the Law 35
Business and Religious Ethics 36
Approaches to Ethical Theory 38
Study Questions 41
Chapter 3: Utility and Utilitarianism 43
An Airplane Manufacturing Case 43
Utilitarianism 43
Act and Rule Utilitarianism 47
Objections to Utilitarianism 50
Utilitarianism and Justice 52
Applying Utilitarianism 53
Utilitarianism and Bribery 56
Study Questions 60
Chapter 4: Moral Duty, Rights, and Justice 61
The Johnson Controls Case 61
Deontological Approaches to Ethics 62
Reason, Duty, and the Moral Law 63
Application of the Moral Law 67
Imperfect Duties, Special Obligations, and Moral Ideals 71
Rights and Justice 73
Study Questions 81
Chapter 5: Virtue Ethics and Moral Reasoning 82
The Case of Dora and Joe 82
Virtue 82
Applying Moral Reasoning 87
Study Questions 97
Chapter 6: Moral Responsibility: Individual and Corporate 98
The Love Canal Case 98
Moral Responsibility 99
Excusing Conditions 100
Liability and Accountability 104
Agent and Role Moral Responsibility 106
The Moral Status of Corporations and Formal Organizations 108
Study Questions 112
Moral Issues in Business
Chapter 7: Justice and Economic Systems 114
The Case of the Two Slaveholders 114
Moral Evaluation of Economic Systems 115
Moral Evaluation of Contemporary Systems 119
Economic Models and Games 120
A Capitalist Model 121
Capitalism and Government 125
A Socialist Model 128
Comparison of Models and Systems 130
Economic Systems and Justice 131
Study Questions 133
Chapter 8: American Capitalism: Moral or Immoral? 134
The Case of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet 134
The American Economic System 136
Relation of the American Government to the American Economic System 138
The Marxist Critique 141
Non-Marxist Moral Critiques of American Capitalism 146
The Moral Defense of the American Free-Enterprise System 148
Non-Socialist Alternatives to Contemporary American
Capitalism 152
Philanthropy 156
Study Questions 157
Chapter 9: The International Business System, Globalization, and Multinational Corporations 159
The WTO and Agriculture: A Case Study 159
Justice and the International Economic System 161
The Globalization of Business 164
