Business Ethics

My review of Gibson’s *Ethics and Business* (audio)

My review of Kevin Gibson’s Ethics and Business: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2007) was published in the journal Teaching Philosophy (Spring 2010). Here’s a 13-minute audio version of the review in MP3 or at YouTube. Topics covered in the review: * Criteria for evaluating textbooks in business ethics. * The Concession versus Contractual theories […]

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Video interview with Professor Nicholas Capaldi

Professor Capaldi lectured recently at Rockford University on the topic of “The Lockean Liberty Narrative versus the Rousseau Equality Narrative, and How These Narratives Explain Everything.” Afterward we discussed his themes — the conflict between the Lockean and Rousseauian narratives, enterprise and civil societies, the nature of the corporation, corporate philanthropy, cronyism, and more. Professor

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Davidson on rent control as “perverse”

A good journalistic piece in The New York Times: “The Perverse Effects of Rent Regulation.” (Thanks to R.M. for the link.) Rent control is a classic case of bad economics and bad ethics. The bad economics is ignorance of unintended consequences — in this case a price control that makes the initial problem worse. The

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Conclusion: abstracting the principles [Business Ethics Cases series]

My concluding video lecture on abstracting the principles in the business ethics cases we’ve covered so far: Minimum Wages, Rent Control, the Tragedy of the Commons, Laetrile (pharmaceuticals), and the F.C.C.’s “Fairness Doctrine” (telecomm). This lecture is part of the Business Ethics Cases series. Contents: Summary abstraction: comparing the cases. Supplement: Summary chart. Go to

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Upcoming talk in Stockholm

From May 23-25, I’ll be participating in a colloquium on “Virtues and Entrepreneurship,” organized by Sweden’s Ratio Institute. My talk will be an extension of the theme of my “What Business Ethics Can Learn from Entrepreneurship,” arguing that the success traits of entrepreneurship map onto an updated Aristotelian virtue set. The conference will include keynote

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