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Ethics and the Future of Business SUMMARY
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4 sessions of reflection questions. Grade: 9.25/10
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Reflection questions for session 1Monday, September 6, 2021 1:09 PM
1. What is morality, ethics and an ethical theory? Answer: See definitions on slide 13.
Morality is humans’ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
Ethics is the systematic study of morality.
Ethical theories are principles and rules that determine right and wrong in different situations.
2. What is business ethics and why is it challenging? Answer: See definition and elements on slide 15.
Business ethics is the study of business situations,activities,and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed.
3. What is the difference between ethics and the law?
Answer: See description on slide 16.
4. Which dimensions of the Moral Machine experience more agreement?
Answer: See Awad et al. 2018 and slide 20; There is variance in agreement across different
dimensions, but sparing humans instead of pets, sparing more characters instead of fewer, and
sparing the young instead of the old tend to receive more agreement.
Answer: There is variance in agreement across different dimensions, but sparing humans instead of pets, sparing more characters instead
of fewer, and sparing the young instead of the old tend to receive more agreement. Sparing people who has high social status instead of
the low.
5. Which cultural differences come through in the Moral Machine when comparing Western, Eastern and Southern cultures? Answer: Examine
Awad et al. 2018 and slide 21 to identify key differences.
Session 1 Moral and Ethics Page 1
, Awad et al. 2018 and slide 21 to identify key differences.
• Western:
• Eastern: the preference to spare younger characters rather than older character and spare higher status rather than lower status is
much less pronounced for countries in the eastern cluster and much higher for countries in the southern cluster.
• Southern: the preference to spare younger characters rather than older character and spare higher status rather than lower status is
much higher for countries in the southern cluster.
6. What are the core normative theories in Modernist Western thinking? What are the core ideas of each?
Answer: We examined ethical egoism, utilitarianism, ethics of duties, and rights and justice perspectives. See basic elementsin Crane et al. 2019
and slides 23 to 36.
Famous definition Problem application
Authors
:
Conseq Egoism Thomas An act is morally right if the decision maker freely decides in order to purse A moral view based on short-term If the egoist is
uence- Hobbes either their short-term desires or their long term interests. satisfaction of needs is contradictory buying a car,
based , Adam Enlightened egoism focuses on the satisfaction of long-term human with our moral principles. he/she expec
theorie Smith interest. to protect the
s The Invisible Hand is an economic concept that describes the unintended people in the
greater social benefits and public good brought about by individuals acting car.
in their own self-interests If the egoist is
manufacturin
car, he/she
would aim to
sell more cars
Utilitari Jeremy An act is morally right if it results in the greatest amount of good to • Too subjective; A utilitarian w
anism Bentha greatest amount of people affected by the action. • Utilitarianism runs into difficulties in aim to harm a
m, John Act utilitarianism: Whether a single act is right or wrong depends on the questions related to the just few as possib
stuart amount of common good it produces. distribution of wealth;
Mill Rule utilitarianism: Focus on creating rule that produces the most common • can be contradictory with respecting
good. basic human rights; Maximizing is
COST/BENEFIT analysis generally speaking not the best
approach to addressing all values;
• it does not include the idea of
reciprocity.
Principl Ethics Imman Most famous author: Immanuel Kant (1724 1804). Problems: We should
e-based of uel •Central concepts to Kant’s moral philosophy are duty, consistency, dignity, •Ethics of duties is a rather difficult determine
theorie duties Kant and universality. and abstract theory. general rules
s •Duties do not mean mechanistically following rules, but they involve •Morality can be seen as a heavy that apply all.
human’s ability to develop moral law and moral rules.<for everyone burden to bear.
satisfy> •Morality is founded perhaps too
•Kant’s deontological theory develops principles or categorical imperatives strictly on the use of reason.
to guide our actions. •Ethics of duties undervalues
categorical imperatives outcomes of actions.
Consistency:
-Categorical imperative: ”act according to that maxim by which you can at
the same time will that it should become universal law”.
-Main idea: What is right for one is right for all, i.e. the rules you apply to
yourself should be applicable to others.
Dignity:
-Categorical imperative: “act so that you treat humanity, whether in your
own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means
only”.
-Main idea: A human being is in itself a valuable autonomical being, and not
as a means to an end or a tool.
Session 1 Moral and Ethics Page 2
, as a means to an end or a tool.
Universality:
-Categorical imperative: "act only so that the will through its maxims could
regard itself at the same time as universally lawgiving.”
-Main idea: Check that the principle is acceptable to every human being
(e.g., tomorrow’s newspaper test).
Rights John Rights and justice perspectives Problems:
and Locke, Core ideas: •Most lists of basic rights can be seen
justice John •Natural (human) rights are certain basic, important, inalienable to be relatively arbitrary. Rights are
Rawls entitlements that should be respected and protected in every single criticized as being too Western and/or
situation. These are based in human dignity and lead to a duty for others neocolonial.
to protect, respect, and support them. •Basic rights presuppose institutions
•Main natural rights: Right to life, freedom, property, speech, privacy, that allow for recourse in case of
conscience, and fair trial among others. breach. Theory does not offer
practical guidance in extreme
•Rights based thinking are a central part of Western political and ethical situations
thought and the foundation of universal human rights.
•Justice: The simultaneous fair treatment of individuals in a given situation
with the result that everybody gets what they deserve.
•Key ideas: Procedural vs. distributive fairness; veil of ignorance; social
contract; system of basic liberties, judgement of society by the state of the
least advantaged, and equal opportunity
7. What are alternative theories to Modernist Western normative theories described above?
Answer: Crane et al. 2019 list virtue ethics, feminist ethics, discourse ethics and postmodern ethics; See slide 37 and Crane et al. 2019 for
descriptions of key elements.
definition problem application
virtue ethics The central aim is not to fulfill duties or aim for the
greatest good, but to lead a
good life. Virtue ethics focuses on the character of the
individual decision‐maker
feminist ethics Instead of abstract moral principles, feminist ethics
emphasizes caring, empathy,
and harmonious and healthy social relationships.
discourse ethics Discourse ethics focuses on solving ethical conflicts
through democratic
dialogue and providing a process of norm gen
postmodern ethics Moving away from rationality, postmodern ethics focuses
on emotional moral impulses towards others, and focuses
on individual questioning of universal rules.
8. What kind of practices can we implement to create more value in a utilitarian sense?
Answer: See Bazerman 2020 and slide 39.
Bazerman (2020) guidelines for creating more value:
• Compare alternatives: Allows us to implement utilitarianism.
• Look for tradeoffs: Allows us to consider on what each of values in negotiations. (Negotiation strategy focuses on creating the most
value.)
• See time as a scarce resource: Allows us to prioritize and focus our efforts. (comparative advantages)
• Integrate your ethical self: Allows us to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Design the choice architecture: Allows us to make positive value creation easier.
9. What is the difference between ethical absolutism, relativism and pluralism?
Answer: See Crane et al. 2019 P87 and slide 42.
• Ethical absolutism: eternal, universally applicable moral principles. According to this view, right and wrong are objective qualities
that can be rationally determined, irrespective of the circumstances.
• Ethical relativism: morality is context-dependent and subjective. relativists tend to believe that there are no universal right and
wrongs that can be rationally determined-it simply depends on the traditions, convictions, or practices of those making the
decision.
• Pluralism: incompatible values can be equally legitimate tolerate them. Potential of radical conflict between logical theorical
perspectives. Pluralism represents a moderate view. Pluralism does not view any single theory as the only correct approach to
ethical problems. Each ethical theory is seen to provide resources for decision making. The aim is to find a contextually appropriate
balance and consensus that takes into consideration different perspectives.
Session 1 Moral and Ethics Page 3
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