Few understand the importance of Kant in business ethics. I appreciate any enlightenment offered.
By the way, this is a beautiful web site. There is also a strong implication of heavy intellectual lifting going on, so be ready for a challenge.
James Pilant
Check out my chum and occasional collaborator Chris Onof’s paper Moral Worth and Inclinations in Kantian Ethics just published at Kant Studies Online. There are few philosophers around today that write with such exacting precision, such intimacy with their topic and with such philosophical breadth that Chris Onof does. … Read More
Here is a fellow business professor. Always a pleasure to find another blogging teacher. He enjoys his students and finds their attention drawn to ethics. That’s wonderful, you’d be surprised how many teachers are less than fond of their students.
I like his thoughts on ethics, and I want you to read them.
James Pilant
Remember that Willie Nelson song “Always On My Mind? Well, sometimes it feels like ethics is always on the mind of marketers – which of course is a good thing! When I look at the traffic on this blog, the posts on ethics always get the most hits, by a long shot. And while I can never identify who, specifically, lands on these pages, I can see what search engine terms lead people here. Phrases like “marketing ethics” and “examples of legal but u … Read More
I was not aware of this particular fee but I am not surprised. As municipalities and states lose revenue, they have to resort more and more to fees. This essentially makes everything from state parks to justice too expensive for many Americans. This trend is getting worse not better.
James Pilant
The entire judicial system in the USA is so skewed against the poor it is sickening. Falsely accused and want a trial by jury of twelve of your peers? That will be $250 in my local district court and that sickens me. Imagine asking a subsistence farmer to pay that kind of money vs a billionaire. It isn’t right to ask a poor person to forfeit several months worth of disposable income. Heck in India that is one tenth of your annual income – and I’m … Read More
I was very impressed by this article. It is a call for character formation as a priority for education. And a harsh criticism of a culture too often aimed only at monetary success. I find it eloquent and there is little in it that is not obvious from a moral or ethical view point. I wish the author well and hope he reaches a substantial audience.
James Pilant
GREAT NATION = Creative Quality of Skills + Moral Correctness +Humility + Industriousness I believe that the power of education is formidable. It shapes minds, thoughts and eventually all these will form a character. Devils or angels, I believe nurture does have certain impacts on a person. Hence I believe that education has at least a profound influence on a person upbringing This col … Read More
I use a desktop computer and have thus far stayed with the stone age e-mail system to maintain my communications.
As a college professor, trying to teach my students to think in paragraphs, tweeting strikes me as a retrograde step.
Nevertheless, it has become a formidable cultural influence and I was delighted to find this article discussing the ethics of tweeting.
If this is something you like to do, this advice will probably serve you well.
James Pilant
Check out this blog post from Tweet Smarter about giving credit for tweets, and how to not get your account suspended from twitter. You can find the whole post here: http://blog.tweetsmarter.com/retweeting/the-retweet-stylebook-a-short-collection-of-standards/ How Misunderstanding Retweets Can Get You Suspended From Twitter by DAVE LARSON on MARCH 28, 2011 Retweet standards are about curator attribution. (When you’re looking at a tweet, the curat … Read More
Business ethics is often a muddy field with many opposing points of view. I like this clear set of definitions. If the transnational entities followed anything like this, we would live in a different world.
James Pilant
As written by Dore E. Frances, Ph.D. Sometimes being compassionate is more ethical than keeping a rule Ethical values, translated into active language establishing standards or rules describing the kind of behavior an ethical person should and should not engage in, are ethical principles. The following list of principles join the characteristics and values that most people associate with ethical behavior. Ethical decision-making systematically co … Read More
I find stoicism an attractive philosophy. I suspect that has to do with the slings and arrows of an implacable fate falling with such regularity. Hanging tough may be the only thing many Americans (and all Japanese) can do.
It’s a nice essay. I hope you enjoy it. Maybe you can buy the book when it’s finished.
James Pilant
My book on the history of moral thought, due to be published next year by Atlantic, is beginning to take shape (I should hopefully have finished writing it by late summer / early autumn). Every month I am posting small sections from the book. This excerpt is from the conclusion of Chapter 3, which begins in Aristotle’s moral thought and ends in Stoicism. THE PHILOSOPHER ZENO WAS ONCE FLOGGING A SLAVE WHO HAD STOLEN SOME goods. ‘But I was fated t … Read More
If you want a book that swollen with ethical issues, you can’t go wrong with this pick. I have read about many of the issues in the book before but to have them all concentrated in one place is a big help when you are teaching (or thinking about) ethics.
The review is quite good. There are obviously skilled writers at this site.
James Pilant
I recently attended a gathering at the University of Minnesota, through its Learning Life series, where Jeff Kahn, director of the University’s Center for Bioethics, discussed Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. For anyone who hasn’t read Skloot’s huge bestseller, here’s the Amazon description: Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a … Read More
There are hundreds, thousands of posts on business ethics. Only a few are thoughtful and only a very few directly deal with the philosophy of business. This is one of those.
I was very impressed. If you have any interest in business ethics philosophically, this is the best writing on the subject I have seen in many weeks.
James Pilant
“Aligning self-interest to social responsibility is the most powerful way to sustaining a company’s success,” says Starbucks’ CEO Orin Smith. A larger notion of responsibility is moving to the centre of business leadership in the 21st Century. We’re moving away from the Milton Friedman adagio “live up to the law and maximize shareholder wealth”. Why is that? When is leadership truly responsible? And how to lead responsibly? Thomas Maak and Nicol … Read More
I have not spoken of Chris MacDonald the last few weeks having been tied up with a number of things, such as the possible melt down in Japan. He is the most important web writer on business ethics. He’s been out there publishing regularly for more than four years.
I subscribe by e-mail. If there is any web site I can recommend, this is number one.
Courtesy of Victoria Packing
This blog post is fascinating and on a subject I was unaware of. You should read it, favorite the site, subscribe and then sit comfortable pleased with your decision making.
James Pilant
You could tell a lot about your average foodie or food-safety advocate by asking them to list food-related issues by level of importance. Some people tend to focus on the latest feel-good trend (e.g., at least some versions of localism) and unsupported conjecture (e.g., many versions of the anti-GMO stance). Others focus on, you know, things that really can hurt us and that really require someone identifiable to take action. Here’s one that reall … Read More
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