James M. Buchanan: Smithian Economist as Business Ethicist

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Art Carden ◽  
Greg Caskey ◽  
Zachary Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethicist

An Extreme Example?

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-365
Author(s):  
Peter Gratton ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Nichomachean Ethics ◽  
New Yorker ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Business Ethicist ◽  
Nazi Era

With Eichmann in Jerusalem, we have, I would admit, a most unlikely case study for use in a business ethics classroom. The story of Eichmann is already some sixty years old, and his activities in his career as a Nazi were far beyond the pale of even the most egregious cases found in the typical business ethics case books. No doubt, there is some truth to the fact that introducing Eichmann’s story into an applied ethics class would inevitably depict an unseemly analogy between the practices of latter day corporations and the bureaucracy of the Nazi era. My argument here, though, is that the story of Adolf Eichmann, as depicted in Hannah Arendt’s well-known Eichmann in Jerusalem, offers a philosophically cogent account of judgment and ethical decision-making that future business managers and employees would do well to heed. Indeed, Eichmann in Jerusalem, originally a series of press accounts for New Yorker magazine, deserves consideration alongside the Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, and other classic ethics texts in a business ethics syllabus. This is not to say that Arendt’s work is uncontroversial; there are serious questions to be raised about both her depiction of Eichmann and her conclusions about “the banality of evil.” Nevertheless, her account of ethics, which, with its account of ethical duties and its case study of Eichmann’s character, shows both its Aristotelian and Kantian influences, is a warning to readers who would conflate morality with state laws and their duties with the needs of superiors. In short, I argue that, despite her well-known critique of modern large scale economies and her general avoidance of discussions of post-industrial corporations, Arendt may be a business ethicist of the first order.

Business is one thing, Ethics is Another: Revisiting Bernard Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Bragues
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Corporate Scandals ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Business Ethicist ◽  
Critical Ethic ◽  
Bernard Mandeville

Abstract:Recent corporate scandals raise an old question anew: is capitalism fundamentally infected by immorality? A now almost forgotten answer to this question was advanced at the dawn of capitalism, an answer that students of business ethics would find profit in considering. In the early eighteenth century, Bernard Mandeville authored The Fable of the Bees, which became notorious in its day for arguing that capitalism created wealth while necessarily relying on vicious impulses. The fundamental dilemma is that morality requires self-denial while capitalism runs on self-interest. As such, Mandeville claims that business and ethics are essentially separate.While this would appear to align him with skeptics of business ethics, Mandeville does suggest a role for moral theorists in dealing with the challenges of commercial societies. The Mandevillean business ethicist proceeds by separating the public and private spheres. In the former, where government policy toward business is at issue, the Mandevillean ethicist applies a market-friendly utilitarianism. In the latter, where individual conduct is at issue, the Mandevillean gently articulates a market-critical ethic predicated on self-restraint.

Why Business Ethics Needs Rhetoric: An Aristotelian Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald F. Duska
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Shared Experience ◽  
Ethical Argument ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
Business Ethicist ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ultimate Purpose

ABSTRACT:If the ultimate purpose of ethical argument is to persuade people to act a certain way, the point of doing business ethics is to persuade others about what constitutes proper ethical behavior. Given that teleological perspective, the role of the business ethicist is to be an orator or rhetorician. Further, since one cannot expect more certitude than the subject warrants, from Aristotle’s perspective,while rhetoric is the most persuasive means of arguing, it is not scientific demonstration. Rhetoric uses examples and enthymemes. Such an approach answers the postmodern claim that ethical argument cannot lead to certitude and shows how the use of rhetoric helps avoid relativism and leads to more effective persuasion. According to Aristotle, rhetoric involves gaining truth with a “rough and general sketch.” This rhetorical approach allows the listener to “see as” the persuader sees, by attending to aspects of our shared experience and language. This mirrors insights of Kant’s reflexive judgment in his third critique as well as the later Wittgenstein, who compares ethics to aesthetics.

The Role of the Business Ethicist

2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas CAPALDI
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethicist

Postmodern Interviews in Business Ethics: A Reply to Ronald Green

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Business People ◽  
Interview Method ◽  
Interview Techniques ◽  
Ethics Research ◽  
Business Ethicist ◽  
Current Business

My objective is to extend Ronald Green’s account of postmodernism by asking how postmodern ethicists should interview business people. I note the use of the interview method in current business ethics research. I then present Jeffrey Stout’s criticism of Robert Bellah’s interview techniques used in Habits of the Heart, which prompts questions about what constitutes a postmodern interview. In conclusion I seek clarification about whether and in what sense Ron Green intends to be a “foundationalist postmodern business ethicist.”

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