Use the following 2 starting points to develop your essay on morality and ethics:
The article by Jay Feldman: Sunday Dialogue: How Corporations Behave
Alfred North Whitehead’s controversial statement, “What is morality in any given time and place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like and immorality is what they dislike” (BrainyQuote, 2018).
Think about those two perspectives, and then select 1 of the focal questions in Part 1 of the assignment. Your response to the selected focal question will guide you to formulate a thesis statement.
Discuss the article and Whitehead’s statement in the introduction, body, and conclusion of the essay.
Businesses can have ethical standards, but businesses are not moral agents. Do you agree or disagree?
Is it true that the “bottom line” of a business is profit and profit alone?
In business, are there other, less tangible goals that are intrinsic to—and just as important as—making money?
In a business environment, why should people be moral as individuals?
Why should a corporation or organization be moral?
Could you apply the first formulation of Kant’s categorical imperative to a business environment?
Part 2: Developing the Essay
Identify your thesis statement (argument claim) within the introduction of your paper.
Conduct research using library resources. Use the article presented above (Sunday Dialogue: How Corporations Behave) as well as 2 additional sources.
Outline your essay, considering deontological ethics, teleological ethics, moral objectivism, and ethical relativism in your argument.
Provide at least 3 valid reasons to support your argument. Remember to think critically here—there likely are reasons that may not be evident at first.
Also, be sure to include the following in your essay:
Use of explanations of philosophical concepts—such as utilitarianism, categorical imperatives, process philosophy, moral relativism, moral absolutism, ethical relativism, moral objectivism, deontological ethics, or teleological ethics—to structure your essay and provide evidence to support your claims.
Remember, you can use these concepts to argue for or against a particular statement (e.g., from a deontological perspective, something might be “right,” whereas that same thing may be “wrong” from a utilitarian perspective).
Your argument and reasons (claims) should be defended by philosophical concepts supported by evidence, which is based on your research.
Part 3: Conclusion
Consider morality and ethics from the perspective of Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and Immanuel Kant’s universal categorical imperative. After conducting your research and writing your essay, could you conclude that businesses can have ethical standards, despite the fact that businesses are not moral agents? Explain why or why not. Sum up your argument based on the evidence presented in the paper.
