Shadow of virtue: On a painful if not principled compromise inherent in business ethics
Journal of Business Ethics 89 (1):99 - 107 (2009)
| Abstract | From a certain philosophical perspective, one that is at least as old as Plato but which is addressed also by Aristotle and Kant, business ethics – to the extent that it is marketed as form of enlightened self-interest — constitutes a Thrasymachean compromise: to argue that it is to our advantage to conduct business ethically, perhaps even advantageous to the bottom-line, comes curiously close to endorsing what Plato called the 'shadow of virtue' — i.e., of becoming temperate for the sake of illtemperance. And yet it also seems true that moralistic campaigns to achieve the impossible, e.g., pursuing justice for its own sake or eradicating egoism, often "detract from attaining really important things." This essay explores the need, in business ethics as well as elsewhere, to make — what Dewey and Niebuhr considered to be — painful if not principled philosophical compromises in order to secure is a society in which there would be "enough justice to avoid complete disaster." | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,711 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesSimon Căbulea May (2011). Moral Compromise, Civic Friendship, and Political Reconciliation. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 14 (5):581-602.
John Raymond Boatright (2009). Ethics and the Conduct of Business. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Daryl Koehn (1998). Virtue Ethics, the Firm, and Moral Psychology. Business Ethics Quarterly 8 (3):497-513.
Jason Brennan (2012). For-Profit Business as Civic Virtue. Journal of Business Ethics 106 (3):313-324.
G. J. Rossouw (1997). Business Ethics in South Africa. Journal of Business Ethics 16 (14):1539-1547.
Steven M. Mintz (1996). Aristotelian Virtue and Business Ethics Education. Journal of Business Ethics 15 (8):827 - 838.
George G. Brenkert (2009). Google, Human Rights, and Moral Compromise. Journal of Business Ethics 85 (4):453 - 478.
Daryl Koehn (1995). A Role for Virtue Ethics in the Analysis of Business Practice. Business Ethics Quarterly 5 (3):533-539.
Michael Yeo (1988). Marketing Ethics: The Bottom Line? Journal of Business Ethics 7 (12):929 - 932.
Stephen Maguire (1997). Business Ethics: A Compromise Between Politics and Virtue. Journal of Business Ethics 16 (12-13):1411-1418.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads18 ( #67,643 of 551,054 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 551,054 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
