05/09/2021

CHAPTER 3:
MORAL PHILOSOPHIES AND VALUES
PHAM THI BICH NGOC

BUSINESS ETHICS: FUNCTION, DOMAINS, AND DISCIPLINES

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META-ETHICS
v The study of moral thought and moral language
Ø Objectivist vs. Subjectivist: Do morals represent "truths" to be
uncovered, or are they entirely subjective?
Ø Egoistic or Universalistic: consideration only of the person who is
doing the deciding (e.g., one's own happiness) OR a more
encompassing perspective (e.g., the well-being of all involved)

METAETHICAL QUESTIONS
v 1. Are ethical principles entirely subjective expressions of personal values and
attitudes or do they represent objective truths to be discovered?
v 2. If they are only subjective does that mean that each person's ethical standards
(and by extension, each society's) must be considered "right" for them, even if they
seem patently immoral?
v 3. If they are "objective" what is the nature of those truths, and how might we
ascertain them?
v 4- What about religion? Is secular morality compatible with religious precepts, or
perhaps even dependent on them? Isn't religious belief the source of all morality?
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METAETHICAL QUESTIONS
v 5. What about conclusions drawn from the biological, behavioral and social sciences
that study human behavior? Shouldn't the nature of humankind tell us something
about ethical behavior?
v 6. What is meant by the ethical constructs "right" and "wrong," "good" and "bad,"
"justice" and "injustice"? How are they to be defined?
v 7. In deciding whether an action is right or wrong whose interests should be
considered: only those of the "actor", the subgroup(s) in which the actor is a
member, or all those directly affected by the action? Aren't we all governed primarily
by self-interest?
v 8. What about the distinction between knowing the right thing to do and doing it?
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Why should one do the correct thing?

EXAMPLES OF META-ETHICAL THEORIES

v Divine command theory: What is "good" (i.e., moral,
just, or right) is equivalent to "God's will.”
Ø Are right actions right because God commands
them?
Ø Are right actions commanded by God because they
are right?
v Natural Law theory: (Thomas Aquinas)
Ø Right acts are those in accordance with Natural law
(acting to promote basic good (life, reproduction,
educate one’s offspring…)

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RELATIVIST PERSPECTIVE
v Individuals and groups derive definitions of ethical behavior subjectively from experience.

Ø Descriptive relativism: Relates to observations of other cultures

Ø Metaethical relativism: Proposes people see situations from their own perspectives
ü No objective way of resolving ethical disputes between different value systems and individuals

Ø Normative relativism: Assumes one person’s opinion is as good as another’s

v The relativist observes the actions of members of an involved group and attempts to determine
that group’s consensus on a given behavior. A positive consensus signifies that the group
considers the action to be ethical.
v A problem with relativism is that it emphasizes peoples’ differences while ignoring their basic
similarities. Research indicates that relativism is negatively related to a person’s sensitivity to
ethical issues.

MORAL PHILOSOPHY DEFINED

v The specific principles or values people use to decide
right from wrong
Ø Person-specific
Ø Guidelines for determining how to settle conflicts
and optimize mutual benefit
Ø Provide direction in formulating strategies and
resolving ethical issues

No single moral philosophy is accepted by everyone

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ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
v Adam Smith
Ø The father of free market capitalism
Ø Developed the idea of the invisible hand
v Milton Friedman
Ø Markets reward or punish for unethical conduct
without the need for government regulation
Ø Currently the dominant form of capitalism
v The U.S. is exporting the idea of free market
capitalism to other countries
Ø Free markets may not solve all problems

ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
v Economic systems allocate
resources/products
v Influenced by, and directly influence
Ø Individual’s actions and beliefs (morals)

Ø Society (laws) as a whole

v Depend on individuals coming together and
sharing philosophies
Ø Creates values, trust and expectations, allowing
the system to work

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VALUE ORIENTATION
v Economic value orientation: Values that can be quantified by monetary means
Ø If an act produces value, accept it as ethical
v Idealism: Places special value on ideas and ideals as products of the mind
Ø Positive correlation to ethical decision-making
v Realism: The view that an external world exists independent of our perceptions
Ø Everyone is guided by self-interest
Ø Negative correlation to ethical decision-making

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INSTRUMENTAL AND INTRINSIC GOODNESS

v Monists believe that only one thing is intrinsically
good
Ø Hedonism: Pleasure is the ultimate good
v Qualitative hedonism
v Quantitative hedonism
v Pluralists believe that no one thing is intrinsically
good
v Instrumentalists reject the ideas that
Ø Ends can be separated from the means
Ø Ends, purposes, or outcomes are intrinsically good in and
of themselves

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TELEOLOGY VS DEONTOLOGY
TELEOLOGY DEONTOLOGY
Greek word: Telos = goal Greek word: Deon = duty
ü Actions are viewed
Ethical/Moral action is inherently ethical or not
determined by the ü Judges right or wrong by
effects or consequences referring to higher duties
of the actions that must be derived from
universal rules.
Good and Evil (Bad) Right vs. Wrong

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DEONTOLOGY
v Most of the moral rules or principles that constitute a
deontological position are phrased in the negative as a
proscription.
v Rule deontology entails the establishment of general
moral rules to be followed.
v Act deontology: each specific alternative in a particular
situation (or act) is evaluated as an independent entity in
light of the relevant deontological principles
Ø Rules are treated more as guidelines than absolute
rules
Ø The question to be answered is whether following the
rule(s) is the best action in this particular instance.

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IMMANUEL KANT
v Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
v There is only one thing in the world which can be taken as good
(i.e., moral or right) without qualification: Good will (right
motives)
Ø Moral value of right motives does not depend on the person's good actions in
implementing them because the person might not be very capable.
Ø Each of us, as rational agents, prescribes for ourselves what is moral.

v It is not enough that the action merely is in accord with a sense of

duty; for it to have moral worth it must actually be motivated by a
sense of duty rather than inclination.
v Ethical behavior is that which is motivated by good intentions, or
the aim of doing one's duty, which is most clearly evidenced when
one has to overcome contrary inclinations in order to do so.

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IMMANUEL KANT
v F1: Universal law or the golden rule: Act only to that maxim whereby
you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law
without contradiction.
v F2: Non-instrumentalization, or end in itself: ”Act as to treat
humanity, whether in your own person or in that of any other, never
solely as a means but always also as an end.".
ü mere mean = to use it only for your own benefit, with no
thought to the interests or benefit of the thing you are using
ü There is only one thing that has absolute, objectively verifiable
value: human beings.
v F3: the kingdom of ends, make sure that the maxims that you base
your actions on are acceptable for every other rational being

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THOMAS HOBBES: NATURAL LAWS

v Laws of nature: It is in our own self-interests to abandon
the state of war and to seek peace, and to give up our
unlimited freedoms under the right of nature, providing
others do so as well.
v Social contract: we are required to live up to the
obligations incurred by our contracts and covenants with
others; otherwise, peace cannot actually be attained.
v Sovereign: It is only as a consequence of our fear of
punishment by the sovereign for committing an injustice
that we achieve a workable social system that he referred
to as a commonwealth
v Critique: pessimistic unidimensional view of human
nature

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JOHN LOCKE: NATURAL RIGHTS

v Morality is based on our natural rights and precedes
society
v Moral truth vs moral obligation: even though a large
part of the content of morality is determined by what
God wills, it is not the fact of being willed by God that
makes moral principles true: God’s will fixes (part of)
the content, but not the truth, of morality.
v Natural law: Locke qualifies the fundamental law of
nature by saying that it prescribes the preservation of
humans “as much as may be.”

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JOHN RAWLS: THEORY OF JUSTICE

v Rawls sees political and economic justice as grounded in
social cooperation and reciprocity.
v Justice is then represented as a general social “contract”
or agreement by free and equal persons on the basic
terms of cooperation for their society.
v Any inequalities that exist in a social system, should favor
the least well-off, because this levels the playing field of
society.
v Decision makers use a veil of ignorance exercise to arrive
at fundamental principles of justice that should guide
ethical decision making.

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JUSTICE THEORY
v Justice is the fair treatment and due reward in accordance with ethical or
legal standards, including the disposition to deal with perceived injustices of
others.
v Three types of justice provide a framework for evaluating fairness of different
situations.
Ø Distributive justice is based on the evaluation of outcomes or results of the business
relationship.
Ø Procedural justice is based on the processes and activities that produce the outcome
or results.
Ø Interactional justice is based on the relationships between organizational members,
including the way that employees and management treat one another.

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CHALLENGES OF DEONTOLOGICAL APPROACH

v Deciding which duty, obligation, right, or principle takes

precedence.
v May conflict with consequentialist reasoning

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EGOISM IN TELEOLOGY
v Two important teleological philosophies are egoism
and utilitarianism
v Egoism defines right or acceptable behavior in
terms of consequences to the individual
Ø Maximizes personal interests
v Enlightened egoists: Take a long-term perspective
and allow for the well-being of others though their
own self-interests remain paramount

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UTILITARIANISM IN TELEOLOGY
v Utilitarianism seeks the greatest good for the
greatest number of people (Jeremy Bentham)
Ø Rule utilitarians: Determine behavior based on
principles designed to promote the greatest
utility
Ø Act utilitarians: Examine a specific action itself;
not the rules governing it

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PROS AND CONS OF TELEOLOGY

PROS
v Utility theory—underlies much of the
business and economics literature
v Considering the consequences of one’s
decisions or actions for society is
extremely important to good ethical
decision making.
CONS
v It is often difficult to obtain the
information required to evaluate all of the
consequences for all stakeholders who
may be directly or indirectly affected by an
action or decision.
v The rights of a minority group can easily
be sacrificed for the benefit of the majority.

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VIRTUE ETHICS
v Virtue ethics judges decisions as right that are taken based on a
virtuous mind-set and congruent with a good, “virtuous” life
Ø Thus, an action conducted by a non-virtuous actor or out of a
non-virtuous motivation is always bad, however good the
outcome might be.
v A virtue is a combination of good traits of character, such as
honesty, prudence, and wisdom.
v Bragues distills 7 main virtues from Aristotle’s original catalog of
13 virtues that are especially important to actions in businesses.
Ø To the inside (courage, self-control)
Ø To the outside (generosity, magnificence, magnanimity, and
sociability)
Ø Toward the fairness (justice)

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VIRTUE ETHICS
v Criticism:
Ø Capability to solve ethical dilemmas and to be a guiding light for businesses
Ø Limited applicability to concrete dilemmas and situational ambiguity
Ø The need to constantly reassess the adequateness of virtues in a quickly
changing and international world
v Virtue ethics evaluates virtuous actions and, unlike most other ethical
theories, the theoretical decision. Thus, virtue ethics is a natural bridge
to the field of descriptive ethics.

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ADDING TO THE FRAMEWORK

FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
v Neither deontological nor utilitarian approaches emerge unscathed and intact from analyses
by their critics, so we should accept both the principled expressions of rights, duties, virtues,
and justice, as well as analyses of consequences, as legitimate bases for ethical decision
making.
v Our initial predilections or gut reactions may be unreliable indicators of what is the correct
ethical choice.
v A few core values appear to underlie many different normative ethical theories and,
therefore, seem worthy of our allegiance.
Ø Universalizability or consistency of judgment
Ø Universalism: Each person's interests are morally equivalent to everyone else’s
Ø Whatever moral or political rights or liberties we envision ourselves as possessing are enjoyed equally by others.

Ø Good values should be facilitated and promoted

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ADDING TO THE FRAMEWORK

FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
v Ethics is inevitably political. "Ethical beliefs, throughout recorded history, have had
two very different sources, one political, the other concerned with personal religious
and moral convictions”
v To the extent that loyally fulfilling one's duties and responsibilities to one's employer
is a justifiable ethical requirement it is contingent on the corresponding ethical
behavior of the employer in furthering and not thwarting the legitimate interests of
all those who are affected by its actions.

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8 STEPS TO SOUND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING

1. Gather the facts
2. Define the ethical issues
3. Identify the affected parties (the stakeholders)
4. Identify the consequences (symbolic consequences, long-term vs. short-
term consequences, consequences of secrecy)
5. Identify the obligations
6. Consider your character and integrity
7. Think creatively about potential actions
8. Check your gut

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