Exam 2: Business Ethics and the Social Responsibility of Business

Situational ethics judges a person's ethics,and it does so from the perspective of the actor.

Intuitionism holds that rational persons possess inherent powers to assess the correctness of actions.

In what way or ways are situational ethics and ethical relativism similar?

To a libertarian,it is not unjust for some people to accumulate fortunes while others live in poverty.

Under which ethical system would it be ethical to compel a few citizens to undergo painful or fatal medical tests in order to develop cures for the rest of the world?

Which arguments oppose business involvement in socially responsible activities?

In 2002,Congress passed what legislation seeking to prevent business scandals by increasing corporate responsibility through imposing additional corporate governance requirements on publicly held corporations?

Kohlberg observed that people progress through stages of moral development according to the major variables of:

Situational ethics is essentially the same as ethical relativism.

The study of business ethics has one main authority and clear cut universal standards.

Adam Smith,in The Wealth of Nations,said the capitalistic system was composed of institutions which include all but which of the following?

Compare the social ethics theories of distributive justice and libertarianism.How are they alike? How are they different? Explain your answer.

Utilitarian notions underlie cost-benefit analysis.

Ashley would like to propose to the board of directors of Mountain Corporation that it distribute eight percent of its pre-tax yearly income to provide housing to homeless veterans.To Milton Friedman,Ashley's proposal would be considered unethical,because it violates the purpose for which the corporation was established.

According to Jack Behrman,a professor of business ethics,free enterprise involves a:

A leading proponent of the utilitarian approach to ethics was the eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant.

An ethical relativist looks to a central authority,such as the Bible,to guide her in ethical decision making.

According to one argument in favor of corporate social responsibility,the more responsibly companies act,the less the government must regulate them.

Harvard philosopher John Rawls stressed liberty as the most important obligation owed by a society to its members.

Although corporations are not persons but artificial entities created by the state,it is clear that they can and should be held morally accountable.