Philosophy Of Economics

Feedback for students in IBE7 and IBE11 1. Lots of students are still introducing terms without defining them. The below should have been defined if you used them in your essay -Stakeholder -Nemo Dat Principle -Fiduciary -Multi-fiduciary stakeholder synthesis -Strategic stakeholder synthesis -Stakeholder synthesis -Stakeholder analysis. Again, the test should be as follows: if a well educated non philosopher would not know what you meant, then you should tell the reader in your essay. 2. Lots of students gave good explanations of the stakeholder paradox. A few students seemed to misunderstand the paradox. The paradox is as follows: -On the one hand it looks like the ethical thing for management to do is what maximises the interests of the stockholders (usually, this is increased profits). It is to the stockholders to whom they owe their loyalty, and who they act for. So they should follow a strategic stakeholder synthesis. -On the other hand, it looks like the ethi

We will discuss these cases in the final tutorial. 1. A large Dutch manufacturer, who operates in an overseas country, has been paying private security guards there to assault and intimidate trade unionists. An employee discovers this and steals his bosses' mobile phone, containing proof of this criminal activity. He then sends the phone to a journalist. 2. Anna works for a Dutch religious charity that lobbys the Dutch government to make buying and selling sex in the Netherlands criminal. Anna discovers that the Chief Financial Officer of the charity regularly pays for sex. There is evidence of this (in the form of text messages) on the Chief Financial Officer's personal smartphone. Anna accesses the smartphone (lying on the desk at work) and forwards these text messages to a journalist. 3. An engineering company (Lockseat) recently paid an employee of another company (Boadin) to hand over confidential research and development data for a new jet engine. This is unl

This feedback is based on essays from IBE 7 and IBE 11. - Most students understood the F&S paper. - Some failed to mention the *AFFECT* that the market had in F&S (and merely mentioned that they thought it was unethical or selfish to kill the mouse, or that choosing to kill the mouse shows only concern for yourself). To improve they should talk about what difference being in a market had on the participants behaviour. -Most students understood most or some of the B&S paper. -Many students introduced the term "telos" without defining it. In a philosophy essay, if you use a word that someone who is not a philosopher but is well educated would not know, it is best to define it. -Some students did not spell out the relationship between virtue and telos in the B&S paper -Some students did not say exactly how B&S's argument worked, only that they think markets promote ethical behaviour. You should say *why* they think this too! -A few students did

Reading:  Kenneth Goodpaster 1991, Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysis Questions A. Introduction 1. Does anyone boycott any companies e.g. Nestle, Coca Cola? If so why? 2. What is a stockholder in a company? 3. Vote: Do businesses managers have a responsibility to anyone but their stockholders? B. Understanding 4. What is a 'stakeholder'? 5. What is 'stakeholder analysis'? Why is it morally neutral (according to Goodpaster)? 6. What is 'stakeholder synthesis'? 7. What is 'strategic stakeholder synthesis'? 8. What does 'fiduciary' mean? 9. What is 'multi-fiduciary stakeholder synthesis'? 10. What is the 'stakeholder paradox'? 11. What is Goodman's thesis? C. Discussion 12. Do you think there really is a 'stakeholder paradox'? 13. What about the laws that govern our markets and corporations? Do they affect the responsibilities that business managers have, and the expectations of the cit

Reading: Bruni and Sugden 2013 – Reclaiming Virtue Ethics for Economics (B&S) Falk and Szech 2013 – Morals and Markets (F&S) A. Introduction 1. Whats an example of ethical  behaviour? How about unethical? 2. Vote: do markets promote ethical  behaviour  or not? (Make clear this is an opinion, no 'right answer'. Options: yes/no/Im not sure) 3. What do B&S think? How about F&S? (Options:yes/no/Im not sure) B. Bruni and Sugden B&S - Understanding 1. What is an example of a virtue? (e.g. what is a virtue of students, or soldiers?) 2. What is 'telos'? 3. What is the telos of a pen? What is the telos of a university? 5. What, according to virtue ethics and B&S, is the relationship between telos and virtue? 6. What, according to B&S, is the telos of markets? 7. What about the virtue of markets? 8. So what is B&S' conclusion/thesis? B&S - Discussion 9. What do you think the telos of a market is? 10. Are t