There is a new blog up dealing with business ethics. It just premiered today. I want everyone to extend a warm welcome to the newest blogger in the field.
James Pilant
Welcome to my blog! (via Business and Life)
Tag: ethics
On rationality and morality, and valuing an individual’s life. (via Musings of a procrastinator)
This is a look back at the scandal surrounding the Ford Pinto, a car with a less than stellar reputation. I’m not going into detail. I don’t want to spoil the story.
This article makes some good points and I like it. He’s dealing with one of the most morally charged stories of the twentieth century.
It’s a good story, well handled. Please read it.
James Pilant
The Ethics Sage Responds to the Post: Maybe It’s Time For A Movement – A Movement That Moves Beyond Doing Good To Doing Right (via First Friday Book Synopsis)
The Ethics Sage, Steven Mintz, comments on an earlier post.
Yes. We can do what is difficult but the first step is recognizing there is a problem. I haven’t seen that from any of our leaders and it’s certainly not discussed in the media. The work ethic and hunger for learning that once existed no longer is there. We have become a soft nation; too many have had it too good for too long. It used to be young people were motivated to succeed at least in part to have it better than their parents. Since they have been given everything they need and want, what’s left? The problem is exacerbated by our instant access culture. Press a button and you have what you want. Go on the Internet and download what you need. We are not a doing society anymore. We are a let others do it for us society. It has taken its toll and those of us who are trying to educate young people are constantly frustrated by the prevailing mentality of students — tell me what I need to know to get the highest grade or best job. I don’t have any answers because I don’t think many people recognize the problem or, if they do, it’s easier to just make believe it doesn’t exist.
Good Words. I, too, see a lack of leadership on moral issues. But we really can’t have a national dialogue without enforcement of the law against the financial sector. When we read daily of the profits of investment bankers against a back drop of investigative reports showing their culpability in financial disaster, it is difficult to tell anyone that high ethical standards are important. Just the opposite. The great investment banks live for profit without any consideration of any moral or ethical principle. They are willing to participate in the destruction of democracies, economies and the, occasional, forest; if it makes money.
In the next life they will be punished. I find that cold comfort when their actions are solid evidence that an immoral corporate culture can make you rich.
These people do not deserve their money. They do not deserve the high opinion in which they are held. They do not deserve the influence they have over the lives of others.
They do deserve salaries in proportion to what they produce, not a comical casino profit insured from blunder by the government, but salary based on value produced. Those among them who have committed crimes, prison sentences and confinement in real prisons with real prisoners. These captains of investment deserve to be rated according the their actual accomplishments and abilities not held up as examples to steer youth into ruthless pursuit of gain.
The culture I want rewards people based on their merits and at the very least values the common brotherhood of all human kind.
James Pilant
Education as a Means to an End (via LongWind)
Persuading my students that education is a lifetime process is a lot like nailing snow to the wall. It is generally unavailing and at best temporary.
The belief that a diploma indicates an education is pernicious. It is self defeating. A diploma is like a license to drive. Its possession is evidence that one knows how to learn. But if it is considered an end in itself, it is of little use. It is like getting a driver’s license, proudly carrying it with you and proudly showing it to everyone and then never driving a car.
We are confused between education as a finished product delivered at the end of the assembly line and education as a matter of capability. One is static becoming obsolete. The other is dynamic continually changing form and creating new dynamics and possibilities in endless chains.
As a society, treating education as a finite process limits and cheapens political discourse. It makes learning into a jobs game like going around the monopoly board.
To build a society, a civilized place for people to develop, education never ends. It continually creates and inspires.
A diploma without further learning is a static choice. It is easy. The other, lifetime learning, is dynamic and difficult.
We can do what is difficult. We have a responsibility to our posterity to do the difficult, to leave our descendants a lasting example and to call from us, our best efforts.
James Pilant
via LongWind
Andrew Comments On My Post: “Could science prove that vanilla is better than chocolate? (via No Right to Believe)”
Andrew has some comment concerning my blog post: “Could science prove that vanilla is better than chocolate? (via No Right to Believe)”
Here are Andrew’s thoughts –
I disagree with Mr. Harris. Science was designed to be descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, science is meant to describe how things are or how they appear to be. Not how things ought to be.
The scientific method could be used to examine how and why different cultures end up with their specific philosophical values systems. It is not equipped, however, to determine which system is “better” and which ought to be followed.
Sam Harris and the other founders of the New Atheist Movement (NAM) have been trying, for the past few years, to make science into more than what it is. They’ve put it up on a pedestal and seem to be almost worshiping the idea of science as this perfect process for the attainment of knowledge and reason. They’ve run into a few roadblocks, however, when trying to reconcile the notion of morality and “what we OUGHT to do” with the scientific method that they worship. The funny part is, by doing this they fall into the very same philosophical traps that they accuse the followers of religious philosophies and doctrines of doing.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m an atheist as well (not as militant as the NAM though), and I am very familiar with a few areas of science (mainly physics and mechanics) so I know how good of a tool science can be at helping us further our understanding of the universe we live in. Having said that, however, let me emphasis that it does have its limits.
A good example of this is in the topic of nuclear weapons. Science helped us understand how to build the atom bomb. The ethics behind building and using such a weapon, however, is a completely different ball game. As such, we can see that there is more to being human than what science can help us see.
Whether or not science has moral answers I will leave to my readers’ discretion. I am still struggling with the history and basic tenets of moral philosophy. Isn’t John Wayne supposed to have said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” I try to not in over may head although I’m sure I do at times.
James Pilant
Why Moral Philosophers Aren’t More Moral Than the Rest of Us (via Ockham’s Beard)
This is a fun article. Of course, as an ethics teacher I should probably worry, but I will continue to have faith that I will do okay.
I am still working my way through moral philosophy so this article had relevance for me. I hope you enjoy it as well. Read the comments, some of them are pretty fire breathing.
James Pilant
via Ockham’s Beard
Could science prove that vanilla is better than chocolate? (via No Right to Believe)
Philosophy does enter into business ethics. Our author here discusses the idea that we can derive moral standards from science. It is an interesting take on the subject. Very practical from the author’s point of view. He does in the end agree with the idea of the significance of science in morality.
I enjoyed it. Please read it. The author has many other posting about the nature of belief.
James Pilant
The Internet and Social (Network) Conflict (via Only a Northern Song)
This is a fascinating post about how we treat internet posts differently than traditional writing. I enjoyed it. I hope you do too.
James Pilant
In the shadows of greatness (via There & [Hopefully] Back Again)
Fritz Haber is one of the real scientists whose life inspired the “mad scientist” of movies and books. He single mindly aided in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. His response was disappointment and a renewed vigor to create new and better methods of killing. Haber had been a curiosity to me for some years. This article discusses him more in depth.
If you want to talk ethics violations and ethically tone deaf, this scientist should be near the top of your list. If you are a student contemplating writing a paper on ethics, you would have trouble finding a better topic. This is a good article.
Integrity (via Precocious Lotus)
Posts on single word topics like integrity are common and usually terrible reading. This one is good reading. Integrity is little discussed. I tend to write more about hypocrisy and honor, the same kind of turf. But this author chooses integrity and does well with it.
Good read.
James Pilant
via Precocious Lotus
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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