Exam 2: Business Ethics

Truman proposed to the board of directors of Trumarc, Inc., that the corporation distribute one percent of its pre-tax yearly income to feed the poor. To Milton Friedman, Truman's proposal would be considered unethical, because it violates the purpose for which the corporation was established.

To a social egalitarian, it is unjust for a society to take wealth earned by one citizen and to distribute it to others who did not earn it.

Nineteen-year-old Kiren was raised in a home where Christianity is practiced and he attended parochial school through eighth grade. Kiren is a good student and citizen who conforms to the expectations of his church, family, and peers. He does so because he loves his family and church, is loyal to them, and trusts them. Under Kohlberg's schematic analysis, Kiren is most likely at what stage of moral development?

Rule utilitarianism supports rules that, on balance, produce the greatest good.

Cost-benefit analysis is based on utilitarian theories of ethics.

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

What is unjust to a social egalitarian will also be unjust to a libertarian.

An ethical relativist looks primarily to a central authority, such as the Koran, to guide ethical decision making.

Deontological theories assess good and evil in terms of the motives behind actions.

Under the stakeholder model, a derivative of the social contract theory, a corporation has fiduciary responsibilities to more than just its stockholders.

An ethical decision-making approach that relies on a central authority or set of rules, such as the Koran or the Bible, is:

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

Kohlberg believed that all people reach the third stage of moral development by adulthood.

Kant's philosophy rejects the idea that the end justifies the means.

Legal acts cannot be immoral.

The ethical theory of intuitionism proposes that:

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

Ethical relativism holds that when any two individuals or cultures differ regarding the morality of a particular issue or action, they are both correct because morality is relative.

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

Situational ethics judges a person's ethics, but first looks at the decision or act from the perspective of the actor.