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Summary of all the readings for the Morality of Commercial Life
- Instelling
- Tilburg University (UVT)
Summary of all the readings for the Morality of Commercial Life
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The Morality of Commercial Life: ReadingsR2: Maureen Sie, & Bart Engelen (2020). Why Ethical Reflection Matters (and Why It Is Different From Moralizing)
Moral philosophy or ethics, which we take as synonyms, is the systematic and critical reflection on what is good and bad,
right and wrong, morally speaking. It not only aims at what business is about but also what businesses should be with
respect to values of freedom, equality and justice. One should have an appropriate attitude with humility (‘this is what I
think but I might be wrong) and openness (‘others might be right’). When distinguishing between ethics, we need to
reflect on what is good and bad, right and wrong, with three main approaches:
1. Consequentialism. Consequences are the only thing that matters (not the intentions of an agent for example).
- Utilitarianism: Try to generate the most utility in terms of well-being (maximize the total sum of
happiness/pleasure). Objection when something causes more harm than joy. Mill: ‘’happiness is desirable, and
the only thing desirable, as an end; all other things being only desirable as means to that end”. Both quantity
and quality matter.
● Rule utilitarians: overall utility will be maximized if everyone would follow such simple rules.
● Act utilitarians: every single action should maximize overall utility, (problematic implication that it is
perfectly fine to sacrifice some people’s interests for that greater good_
2., Deontology. Rights should be respected and duties should be fulfilled, irrespective of the consequences. Make a
distinction between good or valuable and the rights and duties individuals have. You can do something as long as it does
not violate someone’s rights. Morality has nothing to do with pleasure or desires but with your capacity for reason.
Kant:
● Universalizability principle: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it
should become a universal law”
● Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never
merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end
3. Virtue Ethics. The good, virtuous individual (in virtues like honesty, trustworthiness and friendliness) leads a life that is
worth living and that is fulfilled. When people succeed in becoming virtuous, they acquire ‘practical wisdom’
(phronesis), the wisdom to act morally without the need to consciously reflect or deliberate. Humans are ‘good’ if they
excel in what makes them human, due to their reason in practical knowledge (knowledge to do good and become a
virtuous person). When they excel, they get happiness and ‘human flourishing.
R3: Cécile Renouard and Cécile Ezvan (2018). Corporate social responsibility towards human development: A capabilities
framework
CSR can be defined as a responsibility towards human development in two complementary ways: (a) a holistic
responsibility shared by companies together with other actors to safeguard humanity and (b) a direct liability of each
company for its impact on stakeholders’ capabilities. Three key capabilities that are most impacted by the actions of
corporations and thus must be protected from them, and/or promoted by them, in order for these corporations to fully
exercise their CSR.
1. Affiliation - Being able to live with and toward others (to have self-respect and non-humiliation)
2. Practical reasoning - Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the
planning of one’s life
3. Control over one’s environment.
Corporate Responsibility in the field of - Economic and financial, - Social, - Societal, - Political
With ten central capabilities involved: 1. Life 2. Bodily Health 3. Bodily Integrity 4. Play 5. Sense/Imagination/Thought
6. Practical Reasoning 7. Affiliation 8. Other species 9. Play 10. Control over one’s environment
This leads us to clarify the following action principles in each field of corporate responsibility:
● An economic and financial responsibility to consider profit as a means and humanity as an end.
● Social responsibility towards employees and subcontractors to enhance their central capabilities.
● A societal and environmental responsibility to fight against negative externalities that destroy human
capabilities in the long term.
● A political responsibility to promote proactive voluntary cooperation towards structural and institutional
changes, enabling people to get more control over their environment.
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, R4: Özlem Aslan (2016). Towards “a care manifesto”: Interview with Jennifer Nedelsky on “good life”.
Now, the norms are that men should have a full-time job, and if he doesn’t he aren’t adequate. For women it is more
uncertain and unambiguous: if you stay home, you are wasting your talents while if you work full time, you fail your
children.
Proposed norms are that everyone should do paid work between 12-30 hours a week and participates in unpaid work
12-30 hours a week as well. Your care responsibilities are always there and you take on care responsibilities within a
community of care. Paid care work doesn’t substitute for unpaid care work. Care is a central part of social citizenship.
Care is based on building interpersonal relationships, but it is important not to exclude the earth. Pets however are not a
substitute for collective care obligations, but rather one’s personal commitment and pleasure. Care is essential in
building bonds; it informs people to have the capacity to be a good policy-maker. Care in terms of well-being and
collective membership of the sort that can support democracy.
There should be no caregivers who don’t receive care. People only understand the burden of care, not the benefit (the
joy and feeling of love by having an unreplicable bond). Mutual emotional care is what builds love.
Care disrupts the idea of men having to be masculine and violent - therefore there needs to be a shift in the relationship
between gender and care. Other shifts need to happen in:
- Excellence in a relation to the structure and value of work: It is destructive to distinguish what a good human
life is, there need to be patterns of rhythm and cycle that recognizes the intensity
- Nature of policymaking: It is a mistake that relationships and care are put aside where one has to do them
either in their free time or you pay someone to do it.
A positive upward spiral has to happen between norm-change and democratic-decision making (norm followers in
politics). A basic income has to be provided to everyone so everyone has partly free time. People are becoming more
dissatisfied with family balances and better recognize sustainability issues such as climate change.
R5: The Duty to Hire on Merit: Mapping the Terrain
Candidate-centred arguments tell us that qualifications generate moral entitlements, such that failure to appoint the
most qualified candidate for a job wrongs that person. Stakeholder-centred arguments suggest that the duty to hire on
merit is owed not to the meritorious, but to some other party whose interests are affected by the decision. Regardless of
the approach we take, it seems that morality will sometimes allow/demand a deviation from meritocracy.
CANDIDATE-CENTERED ARGUMENTS:
1 - Hard Work: A person who puts in the most effort deserves to be rewarded for it. However, then one excludes
favourable socioeconomic circumstances as well as luck.
2 - Respect. We can’t generalize that selections based on anything other than job-relevant qualifications will fail to treat
the candidates as agents.
3 - Freedom of Association. Qualifications forecast an individual’s ability to contribute to the ends of an organization.
However, the purpose of an organization can be objectively defined.
4 - Prior Commitment. Not always sure whether the selection of candidates will be judged on former promises (merits).
STAKEHOLDER ARGUMENTS:
1- Utilitarianism: Maximize the important good named X by selecting the most qualified candidates, where X is seen as
material wellbeing. People will only get motivated by rewards based on their abilities. ‘’role-model effect’’ suggests that
people will get motivated as well when they see other people like them showing it is possible to reach their goals.
Not-classical utilitarianism sees X as the satisfaction of preferences but is unsure whether satisfaction of more of our
preferences would make us happy.
2 - Fiduciary duties: The goals and values of a company determine how to select the best-qualified candidates. The most
qualified candidate is not always the one to appoint in the best interests of a company so needs to look at all things
considered (consider for example racial part; if the company has a bad reputation on a mono-racial workforce) or this
particular social environment when customers are racism, so although qualifications white men would do better.
3 - The difference principle: The difference principle states that social inequalities are acceptable insofar as they are
necessary for the provision of the maximum resources possible to the least advantaged. Distribution of ‘‘primary goods’’’
→ ‘’Boring’’ jobs could make people lazy and less intelligent etc, while complex (primary good) jobs could make
intelligent and skilful people. Ensure that the worst off in society get as many of these positions as is reasonably
practicable.
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