PHILOS 2N03 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Corporate Social Responsibility, Categorical Imperative, Virtue Ethics
13 Jun 2016
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Virtue ethics vs feminist ethics (ethics of care) Corporation: definition: artificial persons who have legal status and own their own assets. Friedman: corporations cannot be ethical because: non-human persons can"t be moral, shareholders must keep their fiduciary duties. Economic reasons for corporate social responsibility (contingent): enhanced revenue, savings (reducing resources, managing risk (sustaining a business by being ethical, social license (gaining local consent) Ethical reasons for corporate social responsibility (universal): externalities (cannot escape responsibilities for their impacts, power ( with great power comes great responsibility , dependency (corporations depend on more than just their shareholders) Ethical relativism vs ethical absolutism: ethical relativism: Definition: what counts as a good ethical decision is determined by the convictions of the person making the decision or the culture to which they belong. Negatives: violates the insight that some things really are wrong and precludes the idea of ethical improvement: ethical absolutism: Definition: there is one set of universally true and proper ethical beliefs.
