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Business Ethics and (or as) Political Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Joseph Heath ,
Jeffrey Moriarty  and
Wayne Norman
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Abstract:

There is considerable overlap between the interests of business ethicists and those of political philosophers. Questions about the moral justifiability of the capitalist system, the basis of property rights, and the problem of inequality in the distribution of income have been of central importance in both fields. However, political philosophers have developed, especially over the past four decades, a set of tools and concepts for addressing these questions that are in many ways quite distinctive. Most business ethicists, on the other hand, consider their field to be primarily a domain of applied ethics, and so adopt methods and conceptual frameworks developed by moral philosophers. In this paper, we discuss some of the salient differences between these two approaches, and suggest some ways in which business ethicists could benefit from taking a more “political philosophy” approach to these questions. Throughout, we underline the importance of seeking greater compatibility among the principles used in normative theorizing about markets, regulations, corporate governance, and business practices.

Type
Business Ethics Quarterly: Twentieth Anniversary Forum, Part I: New Directions for Business Ethics Research
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 427 - 452
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2010

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