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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1992

John Conway O'Brien

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…

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Abstract

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 19 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 September 2023

Gunter Bombaerts

The purpose of this article is to summarize three Luhmannian critiques on morality, illustrate new roles for morality and add constructive interpretations.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to summarize three Luhmannian critiques on morality, illustrate new roles for morality and add constructive interpretations.

Design/methodology/approach

Luhmann has recently been described as downright negative toward morality, resulting in a refusal to use ethics as a sociologist, thus leading to a limited use of his theory in moral issues. A constructive interpretation could support a more functional use of morality in social system theory.

Findings

First, Luhmann signals that morality can no longer fulfill its integrative function in society but also that society has recourse to moral sensitivity. Second, Luhmann describes how anxiety is crucial in modern morality and indicates which role risk and danger could play. The author builds further on this and proposes the concept of “social system attention” that can provide answers to individual and organizational anxiety. The author proposes that institutionalized socialization can support an integrative morality. Third, Luhmann states that ethics today is nothing more than a utopia but also that the interdiction of moral self-exemption is an essential element. The author adds that a relational ontology for social systems theory can avoid ethics as utopia.

Practical implications

This article is a programmatic plea to further elaborate morality from a system theory perspective in which meaning is relationally positioned.

Originality/value

This article could potentially provide a more functional application of morality in social systems, thus leading to improvements of attempts of ethical decision-making. The originality of the approach lies in the interpretation of basic assumptions of Luhmann social system theory that are not core to his theory.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 52 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 October 2018

FR. Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, S.J.

This chapter covers basic concepts, ethical theories, and moral paradigms of corporate ethics for identifying, understanding, and responding to the turbulent market challenges of…

Abstract

Executive Summary

This chapter covers basic concepts, ethical theories, and moral paradigms of corporate ethics for identifying, understanding, and responding to the turbulent market challenges of today. The concept, nature, and domain of ethics, business ethics, managerial ethics, and corporate executive ethics are defined and differentiated for their significance. The domain, scope, and nature of related concepts such as legality, ethicality, morality, and executive spirituality are distinguished and developed. Among normative and descriptive ethical theories that we briefly review and critique here are teleology or utilitarianism, deontology or existentialism, distributive justice, corrective justice, and ethics of malfeasance and beneficence. Other moral theories of ethics such as ethics of human dignity, ethics of cardinal virtues, ethics of trusting relations, ethics of stakeholder rights and duties, ethics of moral reasoning and judgment calls, ethics of executive and moral leadership, and ethics of social and moral responsibility will be treated in a later book. The thrust of this book is positive: despite our not very commendable track record in managing this planet and its resources, our basic questions are: Where are we now? What are we now? Where should we as corporations go, and why? What are the specific positive mandates and metrics to corporate executives to reach that desired destiny? This chapter explores responses to these strategic corporate questions.

Details

Corporate Ethics for Turbulent Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-187-8

Book part
Publication date: 2 September 2016

Christophe Revelli

The aim of this chapter is to propose a critical analysis of socially responsible investing (SRI) through debate and reconstruction. Our goal is therefore to try to understand how…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this chapter is to propose a critical analysis of socially responsible investing (SRI) through debate and reconstruction. Our goal is therefore to try to understand how the definition of ethics in finance has steered SRI towards a financial approach where ethics is guided by finance.

Methodology/approach

This chapter proposes a two-point approach consisting of a meta-debate and development perspectives. Each approach is divided into three debates (ideological and philosophical, scientific and practical), which are interconnected.

Findings

The chapter concludes that the debate on mainstream SRI is necessary but should be re-discussed, as it is preventing in its current form the concept from developing and being grounded in real ethical values, sacrificing the individual ethics that should be driving investing decisions.

Originality/value

The chapter proposes to rethink the paradigm around SRI through a conceptual framework that re-inserts finance within ethics, where non-financial performance and impact investment should be at the centre of the scientific debates, leading to an SRI based on exclusion, the consideration of controversies and social impact measurement.

Details

Finance Reconsidered: New Perspectives for a Responsible and Sustainable Finance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-980-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1996

Richard Stivers

Surely the absence of a sociology of morality has to be one of the major weaknesses of academic sociology, and a mysterious one at that. For Durkheim, one of sociology's founding…

Abstract

Surely the absence of a sociology of morality has to be one of the major weaknesses of academic sociology, and a mysterious one at that. For Durkheim, one of sociology's founding fathers, morality was to have a central place as an object of inquiry; moreover, he was passionately interested in it on the existential level, as was Weber.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 16 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Book part
Publication date: 4 February 2011

Masudul Alam Choudhury

In this book we consider the foundation of ethics to be the moral law. Contrarily, in mainstream terminology ethics is defined as values manifesting human behavior in congruence…

Abstract

In this book we consider the foundation of ethics to be the moral law. Contrarily, in mainstream terminology ethics is defined as values manifesting human behavior in congruence with certain civil conduct that are commonly agreed upon by society at large (Spencer, 1978). In reference to the social preference basis of ethics and morality we can adopt formalization by using two different approaches. One approach is to consider linear aggregation of preferences. The other is to treat morality and ethics within complex aggregation types.1

Details

Contributions to Economic Analysis
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-721-6

Article
Publication date: 17 May 2013

Emma Palese

The purpose of this paper is to explain the sense of choice in our contemporary world.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain the sense of choice in our contemporary world.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking cue from the research of the Institute of Neuroinformatics of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and University of Zürich, this paper is meant to highlight that the contemporary individual is gradually abandoning his own freedom of choice: the principle of moral responsibility, and – consequently – sign of humanity.

Findings

If today the smartphone is the most used tool, in the future we will soon benefit from a chip under skin which could delegate our choices. It is a piece of technology that is not only inspired by biology to create robots, but could also change our life.

Originality/value

From the massive use of the cell phone to the robots which apparently ‘‘feel’’ and show emotions like humans do. From the wearable exoskeleton to the prototype reproducing the artificial sense of touch, technological progress explodes to the extent of embodying itself in our nakedness.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1991

Leonard Pluta

Introduction The connection between wealth and virtue or between economics and ethics has been severed. Pure or positive economics is believed to be objective and scientific…

Abstract

Introduction The connection between wealth and virtue or between economics and ethics has been severed. Pure or positive economics is believed to be objective and scientific, based on facts alone, while normative or ethical reasoning is believed to be less reliable and non scientific because it is subjective, value‐laden and prone to prejudice and personal preferences.

Details

Humanomics, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0828-8666

Article
Publication date: 12 April 2023

Ron Peter Messer

This paper aims to make suggestions for addressing the apparent failure of business schools to communicate good ethical decision-making skills to students studying in…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to make suggestions for addressing the apparent failure of business schools to communicate good ethical decision-making skills to students studying in postsecondary institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

At the beginning of university management classes, a form is distributed to students outlining a short scenario that requires a course of action. The two questions asked, based on this decision context, are (i) is it ethical to offer bribes to secure construction contracts in countries where this practice is considered an acceptable way of conducting business and (ii) has the student completed an ethics course at the university?

Findings

The scenario described is what occurred at SNC Lavalin, a Canadian construction company that was charged and convicted with offering illegal inducements to foreign officials (in Libya) to secure large government construction contracts. Ethically, the “right” decision would be to not offer bribes; this is because they are illegal when offered both in the Canada and in foreign jurisdictions. The response results to the survey questionnaire showed that 21% of the students thought that bribery was acceptable, if it was a customary business practice in the country where the transaction occurred, and 93% of these students had taken an ethics course. It was interesting to note that almost all the students, who had not taken a business ethics courses, thought that bribery is not acceptable under the circumstances described.

Originality/value

To address the apparent failure to communicate good ethical decision-making skills, this essay suggests that when teaching business ethics, there should a clearer focus on (i) the distinction between morality and ethics; (ii) the problem posed by relativism; and (iii) the reasoning behind ethical standards. This approach is novel in that it makes sense from the perspective of both a business practitioner and university educator.

Details

Accounting Research Journal, vol. 36 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1030-9616

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Lily Morse, Jonathan Keeney and Christopher P. Adkins

In this chapter, we explore the importance of morality in groups. We draw from decades of research from multiple perspectives, including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore the importance of morality in groups. We draw from decades of research from multiple perspectives, including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and organizational science, to illustrate the range of ways that morality influences social attitudes and group behavior. After synthesizing the literature, we identify promising directions for business ethics scholars to pursue. We specifically call for greater research on morality at the meso, or group, level of analysis and encourage studies examining the complex relationship between moral emotions and the social environment. We ultimately hope that this work will provide new insights for managing moral behavior in groups and society.

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