Ethics Midterm

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Ethics

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deals with individual character and the moral rules that govern and limit our conduct

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business ethics

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the study of what consitiutes right and wrong, or good or bad, human conduct in a business context

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moral standards

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concern behavoir that is of serious consequence to human welfare that can profoundly injure or benefit people

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business

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any organization whos objective is to provide goods or services for profit

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business people

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those who participate in planning organizing or directing the work of business

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statutes

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laws enacted by legislative bodies

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administrative regulations

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boards or agencies whose functions include issuing detailed regulations covering certain kinds of conduct

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common law

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the body of judge made law that first developed in the english speaking word centuries ago when there were few statutes

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constitutional law

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refers to court rulings on the requirements of the constitution and the constitutionality of legislation

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professional code of ethics

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are the rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of memebers of a given profession

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divine command theory

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if something is wrong then the only reason it is wrong is that god commands us not to do it

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ethical relativism

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what is right is determined by what culture or society says is right

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conscience

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evolves as we internalize the moral instructions of parents or other authority figures

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paradox of hedonism

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people who are exclusively concerned with their own interests tend t have less happy and less satisfying lives than those whose desires extend beyond themselves

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morality in the narrow sense

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concerns the principles that do or should regulate peoples conduct and relations with others

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morality in the broad sense

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not just the principles of conduct that we embrace but also the values ideals and aspirations that shape our lives

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groupthink

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when pressure for unanimity within a highly cohesive group overwhelms its members desire or ability to appraise the situation realistically and consider alternative courses or action

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diffusion for responsibility

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responsibility for what an organization does can become fragmented or diffused throughout the group, with no single individual seeing himself or herself as responsible for what happens

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bystander apathy

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when we naturally letting the behavior of those around us dictate our response.

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normative theories

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propose some principle or principles for distinguishing right actions from wrong actions

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consequentialist theories

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the moral rightness of an action is determined solely by its results

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nonconsequentialist theories

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right and wrong are determined by more than the likely consequences of an action.

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hedonism

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the view that pleasure is the only thing that is good in itself that is the ultimate good, one thing in life worth pursuing for its own sake

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psychological egoism

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people are so constructed that they must behave selfishly. asserts that all actions are selfishly motivated and that truly unselfish actions are therefore impossible

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act utilitarianism

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we must ask ourselves what the consequences of a particular act in a particular situation will be for those affected. if it brings more total good than those of any alternative course than it is the right one.

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categoric;al imperative

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we should always act in such a way that we can will the maxim of our actions to become a universal law

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hypothetical imperatives

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tell us what we must do on the assumption that we have some particular goal

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universal acceptability

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if you can embrace something as a moral law only if all other rational beings can also embrace it

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prima face obligation

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an obligation that can be overridden by a more important obligation

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human rights

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moral rights that are not the result of particular roles special relationships or specific circumstances

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supererogatory actions

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actions that it would be good to do but not immoral to not do.

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legal right

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an entitlement to act or have others act in a certain way by law

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moral right

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derive from special relationships roles or circumstances

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negative rights

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reflect the vital interests that human beings have in being free from outside interface

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positive rights

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reflect the vital interests that human beings have in receiving certain benefits

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rule utilitarianism

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maintains that the utilitarian standard should be applied not to individual actions but to moral codes as a whole

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optimal moral code

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encompasses both the benefits of reduced objectionable behavior and the long term costs

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ideal

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morally important goal virtue or notion of excellence worth striving for

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libertarianism

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identify justice with an ideal of liberty

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Lockean rights

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basic moral rights

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entitlement theory

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you are entitled to your holdings if you have acquired them without violating other peoples rights

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state of nature

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property rights were limited not only by the requirement that one not waste what one claimed, but also by the restriction that enough and as good be left for others

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property rights

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what you have legitimately acquired is yours to do with as you will

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original position (rawls)

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guarentees of certain familiar and fundamental liberties to each person and holds in part that social and economic inequalities are justified only if those inequalities benefit the lease advantaged members of society

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veil of ignorance (rawls)

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people in the original position know nothing about themselves personally or about what their individual situation will be once the rules are chosen and the veil is lifted.

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primary social goods (rawls)

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include income and wealth but also rights liberties opportunities status and self respect

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maximin rule

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according to this rule you should select the alternative under which the worst that could happen to you is better than the worst that could happen to you under any other alternative. In other words, try to maximize the minimum

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difference principle

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the distinctive core of Rawls's theory. states that inequalities are justified only if they work to the benefit of the least-advantaged group in society.

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basic structure

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the primary structure of justics is not transactions between individuals but rather the fundamental social institutions and their arrangement into one scheme

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declining marginal utility of money

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the successive addition to one income produce on average less happiness or welfare than did earlier additions

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distributive justice

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to the proper distribution of social benefits and burdens we see that a number of rival principles have been proposed.

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justice

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concerns the fair treatment of members of groups of people or else looks backward to the fair compensation of prior injuries.

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capitalism

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an economic system in which the major portion of production and distribution is in private hands operating under that is termed as a profit or market system

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socialism

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an economic system characterized by public ownership of property and planned economy

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worker control socialism

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individual firms respond to a market when acquiring the necessary factors of production and when deciding what to produce

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mercantile capitalism

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which is capitalism that is based on mutual dependence between state and commercial interest

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industrial capitalism

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associated with large scale industry. when industrialists replaced merchants as the dominant power

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financial capitalism

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characterized by pools trusts holding companies and the inter penetration of banking insurance and industrial interests

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state welfare capitalism

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where government plays an active role in regulating economic activities in an effort to smooth out the boom and bust pattern of the business cycle

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globalized capitalism

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a new stage or level of capitalist development.

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invisible hand

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each persons individual and private pursuit of wealth results in the most beneficial overall organization and distribution of economic resources

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oligopolies

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a concentration of property and resources and thus economic power in the hands of a few

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corporate welfare

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assists businesses and protects it from competition

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alienation

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the separation of individuals from the objects they create, which in turn results in one separation form other people from oneself and ultimately from ones human nature

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hollow corporations

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companies that used to make goods of all sorts and now only produce the package and the label

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comparative advantage

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the goods that it can produce at a lower opportunity cost than other countries can

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short-term focus

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made US companies unimaginative inflexible and uncompetitive

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work ethic

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values work for its own sake, seeing it as seeing it

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capital

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an economic concept is closely related to private property

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competition

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the regulator that keeps a community activated only by self-interest from degenerating into a mob of ruthless profiteers

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profit motive

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implies and reflects a critical assumption about human nature

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competition

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is the regulator that keeps a community activated only by self-interest from degenerating into a mob of ruthless profiteers

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laissez faire

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to let people do as they choose

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limited liability

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key feature of the modern corp. the members of the corp are financially liable for the debts of the organization only up to the extent to their investments

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broader view of corporate responsibility

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do not believe there is anything wrong with corporate profit

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social entity model/stake holder model

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maintains that a corporation has obligations not only to its stockholders but also to all the other consistencies that affect or are affected by its behavior

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let government do it argument

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believe that strong hand of government can and should bring corporations to heel

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business cant handle it argument

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corporations are the wrong group to be entrusted with broad responsibility for promoting the well being of society

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corporate moral code

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should set reasonable goals and subgoals with an eye on blunting unethical pressures on subordinates.

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corporate culture

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the shared benefits top managers have in a company about how they should manage themselves and other employees and how they should conduct their businesses

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corporate punishment

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whether or not corporations are moral actors the law can fine them, monitor and regulate their activities and require the people who run them to do one thing or another

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externalities

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the unintended negative consequences that an economic transaction between two parties can have on some third party