Thursday 2:00-3:15
T-UC59
Edwin Hartman
[ Note: This syllabus is subject to change .]
We shall consider
- the role of business in society, locally and globally;
- some economic and ethical aspects of acting as a business professional;
- several models of leadership and their application to business;
- the relationships among these topics and what they have to do with a meaningful life.
In most weekly sessions we’ll analyze a case on some business practice that raises questions on some topic of importance. I’ll provide the case(s) ahead of time, or in class for immediate reading and discussion. These readings will form the texts of the course.
Every week you will also read all or part of a classic work, usually from outside business, that explores that same important topic from the standpoint of philosophy, psychology, religion, law, or the arts. These readings we call the subtexts of the course.
This is an interdisciplinary capstone course. The purpose is to build on all your prior core coursework, both at the Stern School and elsewhere. We want you to come away with a sense of what a business professional really is, what it means to be one. You should understand how good professionals and leaders conduct themselves in complex, uncertain situations. You should begin to see how your interests relate to those of your organization and your community, and to contemplate what is most important to you.
The primary basis for your grade will be a journal. Every week after class (except for the first week) you are to write a page or so (or more if you are truly inspired or angry) in your journal. You are to react to what you have read and what you have heard in class. You may agree, disagree, elaborate, discuss a related topic, bring in some facts and insights from your own experience, etc.

By Monday of the fourth week of class (September 24) you are to have sent me your first two journal entries. By Monday of the eighth week you will have sent the next four; by Monday of the twelfth week the next four; by Monday of the fourteenth week the last two. I’ll grade them and give you some feedback. You don’t have to do one for the first week. But I urge you to stay up to date by sending me an entry every week after the first week.
You may somewhat improve or undermine your grade by your contributions or lack of them to class discussions.
I expect to be in my office most Tuesday afternoons, all Wednesdays from half past twelve to about three o’clock (unless I go out to lunch briefly), and Thursdays after class for a little while. It’s probably best to make an appointment if you can. My office phone is 212/998-0472. My e-mail is ehartman@stern.nyu.edu
. My home phone number, for urgent matters, is 732/873-2902.
Module 1. Commerce and Wealth in the World
September 6: Human and Economic Considerations
We discuss what ethics is about. Using the case “Monday 9:01AM” we think about how business considerations create fiduciary obligations – that is, a manager’s moral duties of a certain sort – in handling a morally complex situation at the office.
Text:
Subtexts:
“Monday 9:01AM”
Wealth of Nations (excerpt) – Adam Smith
“Unto this Last” – John Ruskin
September 13: Do Markets Always Work?
Using the text “The Price of Lobster Thermidor” we explore the problem of market imperfections or failures. This case is used to illustrate the problems of monopoly and monopsony, externalities, public goods, and information asymmetry. We shall discuss how market imperfections create moral problems. As background we look to the ideas of
Smith and Ruskin as well as those of Mohandas Gandhi.
Text: “The Price of Lobster Thermidor”
Market Failure

Subtexts: Economics & Ethics Selections – Mohandas Gandhi
September 20: Where Does Ethics Come From?
We may think of ethics as coming down from on high, from culture or religion, even from revelation. But the roots of ethical thinking can be found in many places. We look for the sources of ethics in philosophy, religion, the brain, and elsewhere. Keep in mind the difference between origin and justification.
Text: The Commons Problem
Subtexts: The Gospel of Luke (excerpts)
Phineas Gage Websites
Brain Morality
“Origins of Virtue” (excerpt)
September 27: Do Human Rights Exist?
We explore the issue of human rights, especially for laborers around the world. We bring
Gandhi and Jesus back into the discussion. We also consider the origins and justification of our human rights claims.
Texts: “Slaves of Chocolate”
“Lives Held Cheap in Bangladesh Sweatshop”
Subtexts John Wesley, Sermon on Money (excerpts)
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory article (website)
Dalai Lama Nobel Prize Speech 1999
U.N Report on Human Development
October 4: Wealth and Property, Life and Death
This session sums up the first module. Our discussion explore the possibility of meaning and fulfillment within the economic paradigm. Some people claim the need to transcend material wealth in order to find meaning in life. Must the good life be an ethical life?
Text:
Subtexts:
Nichomachean Ethics (excerpts) - Aristotle
“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” – Walt Whitman
Book of Ecclesiastes (excerpts) – Bible
“ Gooseberries” - Chekhov
Module 2. Profession and Personal Identity
October 11: Loyalty and Side Deals

What is the appropriate relationship to vendors? When, if ever, is it ethically acceptable to take cash from them? And if you can’t take cash, what can you take? Anything? What circumstances might change the answers to these questions?
Text: “Buynow Stores”
Subtext: Analects (excerpts) – Confucius
October 18: Loyalty and Whistle Blowing
Local hierarchies create local loyalties. These are necessary to some degree, but they can work against the interests of the individuals or the entire firm or highlight the opposition of one set of interests to another. . When should one be a good soldier? How should those at the top act to reduce information asymmetry within the firm?
Texts: “Travel & Entertainment”
“Ace Greenberg”
Subtext: Memoirs (excerpts) - Ulysses S. Grant
Callicles (from Plato’s Gorgias )
October 25: Loyalty, Industrial Espionage and Trade Secrets
Companies often claim to own certain information about themselves or their business.
How can an employee who has this information decide what belongs to the firm and what to him or her? What may you justifiably learn about your competitor and how may you learn it?
Texts: “Stockbroker’s Story”
“Pizza Plot”
Subtext: Nicomachaean Ethics (excerpts) – Aristotle
November 1: Standards of Truth and Disclosure
Should our standards of truth and disclosure change in a professional context? Is honesty dependent upon context?
Text: “Today’s Analyst Wears Two Hats”
“It Takes a Village”
“Fiduciary Duties”
Subtext: De Officiis (excerpts) - Cicero

Module 3. Power, Leadership, and Humanity
November 8: Leadership and the Law: Federal Sentencing Guidelines
Corporations and professionals face new risks in the implementation of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Here we explain the basic working of these guidelines, and examine their implications for leadership in corporate life.
Text: “Pollution Case Highlights Trend to Let Employees Take the Rap”
“When the Company Becomes a Cop”
Subtext: “The Path of the Law” (excerpts) - Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Prince , Chapter 7 (excerpt) – Machiavelli
November 15: Leadership and Character
We want you to encounter some real voices from the business world. We expect to have a guest speaker for this session.
Text: Nicomachean Ethics (excerpts) – Aristotle
November 22: Thanksgiving break: no class this week.
November 29. Leadership and Ethics: Words and Deeds
Benjamin Disraeli once said “With words we govern men.” If so, then we have to choose our words carefully, and the goals of our governance more carefully still.
Gettysburg Address – Lincoln (on PowerPoint) Text:
Subtext: The Prince
Rhetoric
, Chapter 15 and other excerpts - Machiavelli
(excerpts) - Aristotle
December 6. Business Leadership and Its Limits
In this session we examine the relationship between leadership and the fiduciary duty that binds business leaders to the interest of the shareholders.
Text: “When Good Ethics Is Not Good Business”
Subtext: The Tao te Ching
“Our Schizophrenic Conception of the Business Corporation” (excerpts),
- William Allen
December 11. Review

We have a final, integrative discussion on the course and its lessons, limitations, and implications for professional life beyond Stern.