Spring 2020 PHIL233A Ethics and Business (DePauw University)
Course Overview
My aim in this course is to provide tools for addressing ethical problems arising in business, to show how to apply these tools to prominent ethical problems arising in business, and to explore ideas about how to improve business practices in light of such problems. Prominent ethical problems we will consider include the ethics of investing and consuming products from morally suspect businesses, deceptive and manipulative sales and advertising tactics, businesses’ role in reducing climate change, and the ethics of whistleblowing. In addressing these problems, our framework for thinking about them will lead us to consider whether ethical issues apply at an individual level, or the collective level, or both. So, for example, we will ask: Do individuals designing advertising campaigns have ethical duties not to produce manipulative advertising? Or are any ethical problems with advertising not at the individual level but due to the effects of the practice of advertising as a collective whole?
After this discussion of ethical problems, will consider how to improve business practices by discussing possible issues with how businesses are run (such as managerial power and CEO pay) and ethical models for structuring a business’ practices in an ethical way. These kinds of questions naturally lead one to ask about the justice of aspects of capitalism: our economic system in which we do business. So, at the end of the semester, we will zoom out and think about the nature of justice and some arguments for and against the justice of aspects of capitalism.
Course Calendar
'M' marks a reading for Monday, 'W' for Wednesday, 'F' for Friday. In most cases, Friday has no readings, other than few weeks where I assign an extra piece for the topic of a short assignment.
Week 1, Feb 1st. Introduction, finding questions to ask.
M: No class. W: Introduction. F: Watch Netflix documentary Dirty Money, “The Wagon Wheel” episode (on Wells Fargo)
Week 2, Feb 8th. Frameworks and concepts.
M: Discuss “The Wagon Wheel.” W: Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit: pp. 1-34 (stop at top of page) F: On Bullshit, pp. 34-67.
Week 3, Feb 15th. Why business ethics at all? Part 1.
M: Albert Carr, “Is Business Bluffing Ethical?” W: Amartya Sen, “Does Business Ethics Make Economic Sense?” [Friday reflection piece on Prindle Podcast interviewing Rob Chestnut of Airbnb on Integrity in Business]
Week 4, Feb 22nd. Why business ethics at all? Part 2.
M: Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” The New York Times Magazine. W: Class cancelled for DePauw Dialogue. F: Christopher Stone, “Why Shouldn’t Corporations be Socially Responsible?” From Where the Law Ends, pp. 80-87
Addressing Problems
Week 5, March 1st. Making ethical rules; the ethics of investing.
M: Prindle Ethics podcast “Equality and Equity”. W: William Irvine, “The Ethics of Investing.” F: [For assignment: Robert Larmer, “The Ethics of Investing: A Reply to William Irvine.”]
Week 6, March 8th. The place of trust in business ethics.
M: Alan Strudler, “Deception and Trust.” W: Strudler, continued. [Friday reflection piece on Prindle Podcast on trust and CC’ing your boss]
Week 7, March 15th. Business ethics and climate change.
M: Denis Arnold and Keith Bustos, “Business, Ethics, and Global Climate Change.” W: Marion Hourdequin, “Climate, Collective Action, and Individual Ethical Obligations.”
Week 8, March 22nd. Ethics and social media.
M: Timothy Aylsworth: “Autonomy and Manipulation: Refining the Argument Against Persuasive Advertising.” W: Vikram Bhargava and Manuel Velasquez: “Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction.” [Friday reflection piece on SAGE case study by Julian Friedland about social media marketing]
Week 9, March 29th. Ethics and employees.
M: Michael Davis, “Some Paradoxes of Whistleblowing.” W: Joseph DesJardins and Ronald Duska, “Drug Testing in Employment.”
Improving Practices
Week 10, April 5th. Jobs.
M: David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs, Chapters 1 and 2. W: No class.
Week 11, April 12th. More on jobs.
M: David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs, Chapter 7. W: Joshua Cohen, “Good Jobs.”
Week 12, April 19th. CEO pay.
M: Tyler Cowen, “Are CEO’s Paid Too Much?” Chapter 3 of Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero. W: Jared Harris, “What’s Wrong with Executive Compensation?”
Week 13, April 26th. Models for ethical businesses.
M: R. Edward Freeman, “A Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation” W: Elizabeth Anderson, “The Business Enterprise as an Ethical Agent,” Performance and Progress, pp. 185-202
Week 14, May 3rd. Models for a just society.
M: Jeremy Bentham, “An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,” Chapter 1 and 4. W: John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, excerpts.
Week 15, May 10th. Wrap-up.
M: Wrap-up discussion. W: Group office hour to discuss final paper ideas.