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Lecture 05

The document discusses moral reasoning and its two essential components: understanding reasonable moral standards and evaluating evidence to determine if a person, policy, or behavior meets those standards. It also outlines three criteria used to evaluate moral reasoning: it must be logical, use accurate and relevant evidence, and apply standards consistently. The document then presents arguments both for and against introducing ethics into business, including that ethics should govern all human activities, ethical companies can be more profitable, and the prisoner's dilemma concept shows the benefits of cooperation over non-cooperation.

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Hassan Ali
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46 views

Lecture 05

The document discusses moral reasoning and its two essential components: understanding reasonable moral standards and evaluating evidence to determine if a person, policy, or behavior meets those standards. It also outlines three criteria used to evaluate moral reasoning: it must be logical, use accurate and relevant evidence, and apply standards consistently. The document then presents arguments both for and against introducing ethics into business, including that ethics should govern all human activities, ethical companies can be more profitable, and the prisoner's dilemma concept shows the benefits of cooperation over non-cooperation.

Uploaded by

Hassan Ali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Moral Reasoning

• Moral reasoning itself has two


essential components:
– An understanding of what reasonable
moral standards require.
– Evidence or information concerning
whether a particular policy, person,
institution, or behavior has the
features of these moral standards.
Moral reasoning
• Refers to the reasoning process by
which human behaviors,
institutions, or policies are judged
to be in accordance with or in
violation of moral standards. Moral
reasoning always involves two
essential components:
Moral reasoning
• An understanding of what reasonable
moral standards require, prohibit,
value, or condemn.
• Evidence or information that shows
that a particular person, policy,
institution, or behavior has the kinds of
features that these moral standards
require, prohibit, value, or condemn.
Moral reasoning
• To evaluate the adequacy of moral
reasoning, ethicists employ three
main criteria:
– Moral reasoning must be logical.
– Factual evidence must be accurate,
relevant, and complete.
– Moral standards must be consistent.
This consistency requirement can be
phrased as follows:
• If I judge that a certain person is
morally justified (or unjustified) in
doing A in circumstance C, then I must
accept that it is morally justified (or
unjustified) for any other person:
– To perform any act relevantly similar to A.
– In any circumstances relevantly similar to
C.
Arguments For and Against
Business Ethics
• Some people object to the entire notion
that ethical standards should be
brought into business organizations.
• They make three general objections.
– First, they argue that the pursuit of profit
in perfectly competitive free markets will,
by itself, ensure that the members of a
society are served in the most socially
beneficial ways.
Arguments For and Against
Business Ethics
– Second, they claim that employees,
as "loyal agents," are obligated to
serve their employers single-
mindedly, in whatever ways will
advance the employer's self-interest.
• Agents should obey “Law of
Agency”.
– Third, they say that obeying the law
is sufficient for businesses and that
business ethics is, essentially,
nothing more than obeying the law.
However, the law and morality do not
always coincide (again, slavery and
Nazi Germany are relevant
examples).
Arguments For the Ethics
• One argument points out that since
ethics should govern all human
activity, there is no reason to exempt
business activity from ethical scrutiny.

• Another more developed argument


points out that no activity, business
included, could be carried out in an
ethical vacuum.
• One interesting argument actually
claims that ethical considerations
are consistent with business
activities such as the pursuit of
profit. Indeed, the argument claims
that ethical companies are more
profitable than other companies
• Perhaps the most fascinating
argument for bringing ethics into
business is the prisoner's
dilemma. A prisoners dilemma is a
situation in which two parties are
each faced with a choice between
two options: Either cooperate with
the other party or do not
cooperate.
• If both parties cooperate, they will both
gain some benefit. If both choose not to
cooperate, neither gets the benefit.

• If one cooperates while the other


chooses not to cooperate, the one who
cooperates suffers a loss while the one
who chooses not to cooperate gains a
benefit. Though it may seem a bit
stilted, closer examination will reveal
that we all face such dilemmas in our
everyday lives.

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