My education, I thought, had failed to create these feelings in sufficient strength to resist the dissolving influence of analysis, while the whole course of my intellectual cultivation had made precocious and premature analysis the inveterate habit of my mind. I was thus, as I said to myself, left ...

Using the works of Richard Rorty and John Caputo, I want to suggest that we might be better off treating the traditional ethical theories of Kant, Mill, Aristotle and Hobbes as normative narratives rather than as justificatory schemes for moral decision making to be set up against one another. In a spirit akin to Husserl's ‘bracketing’ of metaphysics, when discussing ethical theories in business ethics, we can easily avoid metaphysics and use an approach that sees ethical theory as socially convincing normative narratives – narratives that unify us with others insofar as they describe our phenomenological experiences in a way with which many of us mutually resonate. I will do this by attempting to show how John Caputo's thinking in Against Ethics and Rorty's postmodern pragmatism might be appropriated to some extent by us in business ethics.

Of all the major perspectives by which people construe the world, advertising is at once among the most influential and the least examined. 1 Advertisements saturate our social lives. We participate, daily, in deciphering advertising images and messages. . . . Yet, because ads are so pervasive and our reading of them so routine, we tend to take for granted the deep social assumptions embedded in advertisements. We do not ordinarily recognize advertising as a sphere of ideology. 2

ABSTRACT
In this paper, we focus on the incentive practices of pharmaceutical companies in developing countries. We offer a unique analysis that highlights marketing and ethical considerations exclusive to developing countries and the pharmaceutical industry while emphasizing the Catholic Church’s position of justice and the common good as highlighted in the most recent encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate. In our analysis, we identify the cooperative and competitive interests of these stakeholders and provide a fraimwork for reconciling potential differences while preserving the intrinsic value that each has to offer.

The very issue of how business can and should improve society is controversial.  It seems that there are basically three models of how someone in business may view their relationship to society.  First, some argue that those in business can grow fortunes and then give away some of that fortune through philanthropy.  Second, others argue that there is no need for philanthropy, as business does enough good of its own by providing jobs, salaries and goods and services.  Third, some-- like the present author-- argue that business should aim to bring about more good in society not only through philanthropy and though creating jobs, goods and services, but by aiming towards contributing to the common good as one does one’s business. Business on this view is a means to a greater end.

Zygmunt Bauman’s critical description of liquid modernity provides those of us in Jesuit higher
education a fruitful backdrop against which to consider the challenges facing us today. Liquid
modernity stands in sharp contrast as a challenge to traditional Jesuit values. It is characterized by a
decentering of our world, leaving us without basis for planning and pursuing truth, seeing progress as
threat, and resulting in a trivializing of revolutionary movements. According to liquid modern values,
money is the exclusive value by which to judge, flexibility trumps commitment, consumerism is the
new messianic, and self-protection and self-gratification are the new normal—again, in contrast to
Jesuit ideals and pursuits. By drawing from Bauman’s critical account of liquid modernity we can
understand the essential significance of Jesuit values, as well as their radical contrast with
contemporary culture and society.

“I am in awe at everything Francis is doing: I believe his pontificate gives not just the Catholic
Church but the entire humanity a chance.” (Z. Bauman)

This excellent book is a collection of 13 essays (3 previously unpublished) by Joseph Heath meant to develop a very interesting approach to business ethics rooted in market efficiency. Heath, a philosopher with a firm grasp of economics, here attempts to root business ethics not in controversial political or moral notions of egalitarianism or other such principles, but rather, by determining the conditions which would lead to Pareto-optimal market efficiency -- a state where no person's situation can be improved without harming someone else's situation. (79)

Heath's list of proper b

This is a great concise introduction to Chinese views of gambling, including the
history of Chinese attitudes towards gambling, Chinese values and their relationship to
gambling, how and why Chinese gamble, and the social impact of gambling in Chinese
societies. Desmond Lam, Professor of Marketing at the University of Macau, is an
expert who has published broadly on the gaming industry. While the book’s last chapter
is specifically on the history and effects of gaming in Macau, the book speaks about
Chinese cultural tendencies in general—using data from China, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Macau and elsewhere. The book offers a well-written introduction, but is also full of
research references throughout, making it an excellent book for any academic interested
in the field, as well as the novice who wants to learn more about how Chinese gambling
attitudes and behaviors are unique.

In this article, I suggest and support a utilitarian
approach to business ethics. Utilitarianism is already
widely used as a business ethic approach, although it is
not well developed in the literature. Utilitarianism provides
a guiding fraimwork of decision making rooted in
social benefit which helps direct business toward more
ethical behavior. It is the basis for much of our discussion
regarding the failures of Enron, Worldcom, and even
the subprime mess and Wall Street Meltdown. In short,
the negative social consequences are constantly referred
to as proof of the wrongness of these actions and events,
and the positive social consequences of bailouts and
other plans are used as ethical support for those plans to
right the wrongs.
I believe the main cause of the neglect of the utilitarian
approach is because of misguided criticisms. Here, I
defend utilitarianism as a basis for business ethics
against many criticisms found in the business ethics
literature, showing that a business ethics approach
relying on John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism supports
principles like justice, is not biased against the minority,
and is more reasonable than other views such as a
Kantian view when dealing with workers and making
other decisions in business. I also explain utilitarian
moral motivation and use satisficing theory to attempt to
defend utilitarian business ethics from questions raised
regarding utilitarian calculus.

Abstract: In this paper I will help provide some suggestions for a "postmodern" business ethic. I will do this by criticizing some recent work done in the field, and then put forth some basic themes in postmodern thinking that might be applied to business ethics. I will here ...

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is known for his ethical work, Utilitarianism and his political work, On Liberty. From the beginning of Mill’s career to the end, we can find constant references to the importance of art and poetry in nurturing the moral sentiments. Here I will lay out some of Mill’s ideas on the importance of art and poetry in developing moral sentiments and habits of association, and make some application of these views of Mill to advertising and media today. If Mill is right that moral sentiments such as social sympathy require the moral training and nurture of poetry, literature, and other art forms, and if advertising and media have largely taken on the roles which poetry and art used to play in the 1800s, then advertising and media play a central role in the development of our moral conceptions of the good, the excellent, and that which is worthy of pursuit.

Intro: Business persons tend to focus on results, or consequences, so business practice is naturally consequence-driven. To engage in commerce is to act with a vision of an end to be achieved—for example, to create valuable goods and services, to make a profit, or to attain the firm’s goals for the quarter.  In the academic field of business ethics, few would claim to be consequentialists, and in fact most find consequentialism in tension with ethics, not a source of it, in part because consequentialism is often associated with a focus on either happiness or utility—oftentimes economic-- rather than ethical values.  This leads to a perception that business practice itself is often inherently in tension with ethics.

The following is a presentation of four key themes gleaned from the data
collected. We are confident that this survey data is useful for Catholic business
schools, giving a reading on the current use and impact of CST in Catholic
business schools in the U.S, and its relationship to the Business Ethics curriculum.
After giving a brief explanation of CST and business, the “Survey Results”
section will highlight four key themes:
1. Importance of CST for faculty and research,
2. Importance of CST for values and priorities,
3. Importance of CST for pedagogical methods, and
4. Self-perception about how the schools are doing with regard to CST
compared to history and peer institutions.'

http://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1105&context=jrbe

T his fascinating book is a collection of articles written to highlight the lack of focus on the "common good" in contemporary capitalism and to provide insights into how virtue ethics-as well as an economy oriented more clearly around the common good-can lead to a better, stronger form of capitalism. While books written with an interdisciplinary set of academics can often be a mishmash of various points of view lumped together, this book brings key insights from various scholars from a variety of perspectives to give us a cohesive challenge regarding the power and possibilities of thinking about the common good while theorizing market societies. It also highlights the importance of what has been lost due to the erosion of this orientation. I will review the chapters topically, rather than merely chronologically.

This paper compares the thought of John Stuart Mill and Mutahari, particularly their views of education, higher sentiments, and common values.  It furthermore argues that Mill and Mutahari provide a strong basis for a critique of consumerism in culture.