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Overcoming Principles: Dialogue in Business Ethics

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Teaching Business Ethics

Abstract

Basing itself upon a virtue-ethics approach, this paper questionsthe value of syllogistic or deductive approaches to teachingbusiness ethics and to the modelling of the kinds of judgmentsthat executives are asked to make in situations of moralcomplexity. It urges that the teaching of ethical theories, ofethical principles, and of logical methods of moral thinking, andthe use of hypothetical or historical scenarios, be augmented bythe method of `Real Case Dialogue' which more nearly models thereal and intense existential realities of ethical decisionmaking. A brief description of such a dialogue is offered so asto provide an example.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Australia

    Stan van Hooft

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  1. Stan van Hooft
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van Hooft, S. Overcoming Principles: Dialogue in Business Ethics. Teaching Business Ethics 5, 89–106 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026583811845

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026583811845

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