PHILOSOPHY 2397

BUSINESS ETHICS
PROF. FERGUSON
8109 DESMARAIS
Ken.Ferguson
@uottawa.ca

Welcome to to the course

Please note that
A course description, along with a
comprehensive list of topics and
readings has been posted on
Blackboard.

Also, these slides, as well as all

lecture slides for the course, will be
posted on Blackboard.

Todays class

Explain what business ethics is

Explain importance of business ethics

Outline main topics to be covered

Mention goals of the course

Describe the mechanics of the course

i.e. exams, papers, readings, etc.

Readings for next class

First, what is ethics?

Distinguish between:
Morality the phenomenon of right
and wrong, good and bad, as they
occur in society
Ethics the study of,
of inquiry into,
into the
phenomenon of morality in subjects
like sociology, anthropology, law,
philosophy

How do you study morality?

This depends on the subject. For
example,
Social anthropology aims to describe the
moral norms, rules, practices of different
societies.

Psychology explains conscience, guilt and

other phenomena associated with morality.

Evolutionary biology tries to explain how

nature selected for beings who have morality.

Ethics as a sub-field in
philosophy

The study of morality in philosophy

is not primarily concerned with any
of these things.

In philosophy the goal is more

evaluative not merely to
describe, but to assess, what
behavior should and what should
not be permitted.

Another distinction
between
Descriptive (or factual) statements
merely try to describe how things
are in some respect
Normative statements try to give
an evaluation of something in some
respect as good or bad, right or
wrong, desirable or undesirable

Which are normative?

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

6)

7)
8)
9)

Everybody likes Omar

Omar is a good person
That meal had five courses.
That was a wonderful meal
You should not mix furniture from different
periods
Mona broke her promise to meet me for
lunch
Mona should not have broken her promise
Most people believe that stealing is wrong
The Mona Lisa is a valuable painting

Types of normative
system/standards

Morality
Etiquette, manners
Sartorial standards (standards of
dress)
Interior decorating
Aesthetics artistic standards
Epistemic standards standards for
evaluating beliefs as rational or
justified
(Law?)

Some characteristics of moral

standards
They concern the well being of people
and other beings (animals).
Moral standards are dominant they
override other standards in case of
conflict.
Moral standards are not created or
determined by any authoritative body
or individual this can make morality
seem rather mysterious.

Another distinction

Descriptive ethics tries to describe

accurately the moral beliefs or
practices of a society.
Normative ethics seeks to evaluate
moral beliefs and practices as true or
false, justified or unjustified, correct
or incorrect.

Examples of issues in normative

ethics
Is lying always wrong? (not just, is it
always considered wrong?)
Does the rightness or wrongness of an
act depend only on its consequences?
Should euthanasia be legalized under
certain conditions?
Is it ever morally right to torture
someone?
Are large inequalities in wealth and
income morally acceptable?

For philosophers merely describing

peoples moral beliefs and practices
isnt all that interesting.
But questions about what actually
is right or wrong, good or bad,
permissible or not permissible, are
very interesting (and sometimes
difficult).

One more distinction

Believing that something is wrong

(or right), (e.g. that euthanasia is
wrong, abortion is wrong)

Somethings actually being wrong

(or right, as the case may be)

There is no good terminology to

mark this distinction. The first is
often called positive morality, the
second just morality itself.

Things ethics/morality are

not

Not just about feelings, emotions,

opinions
Not the same thing as religion, though
religions involve morality
Not the same thing as law, though the
two are closely related in some ways
Not the same thing as cultural practices
or norms, though the two are related
Not just biological facts ethics and
science

Is morality subjective?
Some people think morality is just a
matter of taste or opinion.
But this does not seem accurate:
We sometimes disagree about, argue
about, what is right and wrong.
o We can give reasons to justify our moral
beliefs.
o Moral judgments can be mistaken.
o Intuitively clear that some moral facts are
objective, example, that pointless pain is
bad.
o

Morality and law

Are Closely Related:
o Each has influenced the other
o Many of the same rules are in both
o Normally we have an obligation to obey
the law
But They Are Different:
o Not all moral rules are legal rules
o Sometimes it may be okay to break the
law
o Morality and law are never the same thing

Distinctions
Laws usually written, involve
formal sanctions
Positive (customary) morality rules
about how one should behave that
exist in this or that society; they
are not usually written down, and
involve informal sanctions
Morality itself what really is right
and wrong, which is separate from
both law and positive morality

Morality and religion

They are often closely related in some

respects.

Religions embody moral beliefs and

practices in fundamental ways.

But morality does not depend on

religion morality applies to atheists as
much as believers. Contrary to
Dostoyevsky, the non-existence of God
would not mean everything is
permitted.

Contd

It seems that all societies in the past

have had religion anthropologists
tell us that it is a cultural universal.

But cant we at least imagine a

society that has no religion. Maybe a
Bill Maher or a Richard Dawkins took
control and abolished religion.

But can we imagine a society existing

without any morality?

Back to Business Ethics

So business ethics, then, is the study of
right and wrong, good and bad, as they
arise in the context of business
activities, behavior, practices and
institutions.
What sort of actions, practices, or
institutions
are
morally right or acceptable in business?
What practices are not acceptable?

Examples of issues in business

ethics

Is it ever permissible for a sales person to lie?

Should manipulative advertising be banned?
What rights to privacy do employees have in
the workplace?
Do corporations have any moral responsibility
to society other than simply obeying the law?
Is it morally wrong that CEOs earn hundreds
of times more than their employees?
Is bribery permissible in international
business?
Are corporations a kind of person?

A revolution in business
ethics?
Ethics has always had a place in business,
since business cant really function
without some restrictions on what
behavior is acceptable.
But ethics is much more prominent in
business today than in the past. There
are things you could do in the past, both
at the level of individuals and
corporations, that would never be
tolerated today.

Business ethics as a field

Business morality, right and wrong in

business, is more important today than
in the past.

For that reason, business ethics (BE) as

a field of study and inquiry is more
important today.

Today BE is a huge interdisciplinary field

with researchers from the business
community, from business professors,
philosophers and other ethicists.

Business ethics aims to be

progressive
A central goal of BE is to consider how the
business world can be improved from a
moral point of view.
How should institutions/practices in
business be modified so that society
benefits and people, both inside and outside
business, are able to live better, more
flourishing, lives?
(Of course, not every proposed change is
necessarily a good change.)

Business professionals and

ethics
B/c of the prominent place morality has
in business today, you cannot really be a
complete business professional without
having some background in ethics.
You need to know what is permissible
and what isnt, and you need to be able
to analyze and evaluate, on your own,
what is morally acceptable in different
situations.

But theyll tell us what to

do
Wherever you
work there will
be rules and
codes involving
ethics.
But following
these rules will
not be enough.

Reasons why the rules wont

be enough
1) The rules may presuppose that youre
already familiar with business ethics.
2) No set of rules can anticipate all the
contingencies that might arise you must
have your own judgment to fall back on.
3) You might be the one who has to make
the rules.
4) Ultimately youre responsible for your
actions it will be no excuse to say you
were just following rules or orders.

tell
us whats right and whats
wrong.
This misunderstands the purpose of this
course. Its not moral instruction I will
not tell you whats right and whats
wrong in business.
Together we will investigate and explore
a wide range of ethical issues in
business. Hopefully, this will help you
improve your ability to discuss ethical
issues that arise in business in an
intelligent, reasonable way.

But ethics is subjective

Well, its clear that the business

community assumes that ethics is NOT
merely subjective.

In the real world it is hard to accept that

anything at all (genocide? torture?) is
morally acceptable.

Reason, reflection, and observation can

provide helpful guides in trying to
determine whats right and wrong.

Sometimes we may have to accept that no

decision can be reached.

Main Goals of the Course

Acquire a basic knowledge of moral theories and

moral principles.
Develop the skills needed to think clearly and

rationally about moral issues in business.

Develop greater sensitivity for ethical issues.
Become more aware of ones own biases in ethics.
Appreciate how complex/difficult ethical issues

can be.
In general way, to become literate in business

ethics.

Required Text
A course pack, with the title PHI 2397:
Business Ethics, has been prepared by the
Instructor. This course pack can only be
purchased at Rytec Printers, 404 Dalhousie
Street, just off Campus.
In addition to the course pack, there will be
many online readings. The web addresses
for these are in the list of Topics and
Readings on Blackboard. (They are also
included in the table of contents at the
beginning of the course pack.)

Course Requirements
Three exams, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 8,
Mar. 14, and the third during the examination
period. Each exam will last about 90 minutes.
The exam on which you get the highest grade
worth 40%, the others 30%.
Format: A list of questions will be posted on
Blackboard one week before the exam. A
subset (about 5 or 6) of these questions will
then be selected by the Instructor for
students to answer on the exam. Answers to
each question should be roughly to 1 page
in length.

Comments on the Readings

The list of readings is rather long, but

keep in mind that some of them are case
studies and so are only a page or two in
length.

Also, some of the online readings are not

very difficult (e.g. the clip from the
Charlie Chaplain movie Modern Times)

We may not have time to cover all the

topics and readings listed.

Readings
For next class:
Reading 1: W. Shaw, Business Ethics,
(Toronto: Wadsworth, 2005) Chap. 1, pp.
9-27
For next week:
Reading 2: W. Shaw and V. Barry, Moral
Issues in Business, Chapter 2:
Normative Theories of Ethics, pp. 2942