Business Ethics

The first part of the course introduces students to a variety of issues related to the ethical and economic foundations of businesses and markets. These include classical readings by figures such as John Locke and Adam Smith, as well as more recent readings by 20th century thinkers such as John Rawls and Milton Friedman. The second part of the course applies the foundational ideas studied in the first half to a wide variety of contemporary ethical issues in business and society. One set of topics concerns how wealth should be distributed within workplaces and societies, including debates over economic inequality, executive salaries, and how wages and other conditions of employment are set. Another set of topics concerns the broader impacts of business in a global context; key issues here include business's environmental impacts/obligations and debates over the movement of people and goods in the global marketplace. The final set of topics looks at whether the business/market model should be applied in areas outside the for profit private sector, such as politics and higher education.