Exam Review
Ethics: Right action vs goodness
Developing virtues leads to creating values
Purpose of economics: pursue private vices to lead to the public good
Laissez faire- less gov’t intervention- invisible hand- freidman
Friedman- CSR of companies is to make profit
Impartiality vs Sustainability (China/India’s growth without pollution)
Impartiality- equal and non-discriminating policies (IMF- letting countries opportunity to develop)
Sustainability- limiting externalities- growing without depleting resources
Teleological vs Deontological (goodness vs right action)
Utalitarianism- greatest good for greatest number of people- consequences
Act vs rule utilitarianism- act disregards all rules, rule within laws but still keeping consequences in mind
Problems with utilitarianism:
Cardinal vs Ordinal utility- cardinal measures intensity, ordinal ranks possibilities of goodness
Agent neutral theory: parents care about children
Deontology- action without reference to consequence
Act deontology- action that adheres to self intrinsic values- intuitionism vs Rule deonotology- action that
adheres to universal principles- rationalism
Kant- rule based and a rationalist
A priori- holy will- without empiricism
Start hypothetical imperative- determine empirical personal goal and means to achieve
First formulation: those means should be able to translate to universal laws
Second formulation: treat humanity as an end in itself, not as a means to an end (don’t exploit)
Third formulation: translate autonomous principles and rational morality to legal and political systems
to achieve a kingdom of ends
Categorical imperative: process by which you take the hypothetical imperative (material end and its
means) and see if it can be converted to universal principles by putting it through the 3 formulations and
removing the domain of material interests
Virtue Theory: Concerns those characteristics needed by human beings to achieve normative ideals of
right action or goodness
Virtue ethics: the ethics of being rather than the ethics of doing, separate from goodness and right
action because it talks about “being” rather than “doing”
Eudemonism: focus on the characteristics that are important in ensuring that individuals, communities
achieve the maximum degree of self-actualization
Virtues: truthfulness, consciousness, benevolence, faithfulness
Care ethics: which focuses on the relationships of individuals, and their capacities to negotiate
supererogatory (going beyond the call of duty) solutions based on good communications (associates
with feminist virtues)
Rights theory: creating basic set of rights
Negative rights: compel others to refrain from certain actions (freedom from persecution, abuse, etc)
Life and liberty, most basic, negative, and universal rights
Positive rights: compel specific actions (freedom to healthcare, education, of speech)
Relativistic, positive rights put the burden on gov’t and regulatory bodies
Spurious rights: right to smoke, airline bill of rights (privilege and luxury)
Property rights: can be instrumental (means to an end, shelter) or intrinsic (luxury, western society)
Problems: eminent domain (gov’t take away to use for public interests, not far from feudalism)
Property to be used for capitalistic purposes, but depletes resources (help & hurt)
Prima facie: apparent at first sight, but not applicable in all situations
Inalienable rights: permanent, intrinsically valuable, and universal under a priori principles (life, liberty..)
Gov’t would be wrong if they don’t recognize them, they are protected by int’l law
Natural rights: based on biological nature, takes out religion, grounded in empirical experiences
Justification: 1) self-evidence: obvious that the rights can be justified
2) divine authority: given by god
3) Natural law: by Thomas Aquinas, can be acquired from nature
4) Human nature: justified on the basis of human capacities (Reasoning, emotions)
Human rights: natural rights explicitly acknowledged in law (freedom from torture, rights of the child)
Moral rights: accrue to us through the acceptance of an ethical system (Kant)
Legal rights: granted under a gov’t jurisdiction (freedom of speech, religion, movement in a state)
Welfare rights: positive rights set by gov’t to provide necessities based on need (food, water, med, etc)
Special Conditions of Rights:
civil disobedience- when rights are imposed on by gov’t, then people have the right to stand up against
the laws to secure their rights
Rights to future generations: sustaining the world to be a livable place for the future generations
Animal rights: treat animals well
Whistle blowing: when a company insider or employee reveals secrets about the corporation’s harmful
practices; morally justifiable because the upholding of moral principles supercedes the economic
imperative to pursue self-interest through gainful employment
Is a consequence of pressure to make profits, therefore do immoral things, and suppress these actions
Personal whistle blowing: when the informant is a victim of the harmful practice (sexual harassment)
Internal whistle blowing: going to the upper level about the issue, problem if they know and are coverin
Corp governance practices: companies set up internal reporting mechanisms to report up ladder
External whistle blowing: appeal made to law enforcement or civil society most often through media
Analogy to civil disobedience
Principle of double effect: managers justify short term wrongs for long-term benefit
Whistle blowers are often harmed, or blackballed, discredited. Yes men are usually promoted instead
Problems and issues: difficult to find hard evidence, managers do bad things because of limited liability
Ethical Relativism: claim no universally valid moral principles, or that principles that are valid relative to
specific cultures or individuals are more important than principles that may be applicable universally
Ethnocentrism: belief in one true morality that originates in own culture (“culture imperialism”)
Moral Absolutism: belief in one true universal morality, not necessarily originating one source
Moral Objectivism: similar to absolutism
Moral Constructivism: morality depends on individual beliefs and attitudes but universally/in groups
Moral Subjectivism: moral principles applicable to individual agent alone (first major version of
relativism)
Ethical egoism: follow your ego, look out for your interests
Moral Conventionalism: moral principles depend upon social customs, practices, or conventions
Amoralism: No moral truths, or principles
Moral skepticism: cannot know if there are moral truths (agnosticism)
Globalization: process by which economic relationships expand beyond boundaries of nation states
Social sustainability: key issue of globalization because it involves loss of national economies
Cultural Imperialism: globalization of cultural values (US culture over the world)
Jihad vs Mcworld: conflict representing the disconnection between cultural and economic values, with
resulting social instability
Rawls- Social Contract Theory: different nations can formulate different constitutional traditions that
realize differing sets of values (room for different cultures in one country’s constitution) use prosperity
from strong institutions to build on cultural strength, sustainability, etc.
“Veil of Ignorance”: determine basic principles of justice by blinding ourselves to our interests
and even our ideas of what is morally/culturally good (thick basic principles) (thin specific)
Jihad: no veil, religious principles dictate political ones to form strong cultural uniformity regardless of
prosperity of economy (sustainability based on cultural practices)
Living Democracy Movement: like rawls, no veil, interests like sustainability are actively applied
All 3 (Jihad, Rawls and Living democracy) stress economic nationalism versus globalization
4th option to mcworld: confederal option- Global prosperity is extended to local communities, but this
requires “conscious acts of political will.” (mc world but taking care of small communities)
Mc World: explicitly based on very shallow cultural standards
4 imperatives for mcworld:
1) Market
2) Resource
3) Information/Techonology
4) Ecology
Corp citizenship: creating good corp culture thru mission statement, code conduct & ethical leadership