Markets, Ethics, and Society

Business activity has been an inalienable part of human life; as a result, there is always a pressing demand to address the ethical issues that arise in the business context and consider the ethical implications of their impact on people, society, and the world. This course introduces students to philosophical inquiry into ethical issues surrounding business and offers an opportunity to combine ethical theory and practice by engaging with essential and timely questions. Why is ethics important for business? Should corporations mainly be responsible for the interests of shareholders, or should they also take other factors into account? How should we understand the conflict of interests between employees and managers? What does the value of diversity imply in hiring and corporate culture? What marks the difference between ethical and unethical advertisements? What are some ethical concerns regarding emerging technologies and business models, such as attention economy, sharing economy, and artificial intelligence? Throughout this course, students will learn how philosophers have tried to address these questions and use them as frameworks to develop their views on the relationships between business, ethics, and society. This course meets the requirement for Ethical Reasoning (ER) and is open to students in all majors across the university. No prior knowledge of philosophy is required.