Course

Most of us will spend a large portion of our lives immersed in the world of work. As employees and/or employers, we face decisions every day that depend on fundamental moral assumptions about honesty, fairness, liberty and privacy. We are all likely to have different ideas about what these concepts mean, or ought to mean, and justify our actions accordingly. This course aims to help us evaluate the moral choices we make in a business setting, and to that end philosophers employ the use of argument. By careful use of argument, we will critically assess not only moral choices in the workplace, but also the moral assumptions that underlie capitalism, the economic system under which most people in the world are working. The issues that arise in business affect us all in critical ways. Whether we are debating the merits of affirmative action in hiring, corporate responsibility and profits, terms of employment, conflicts of interest or whistleblowing, this course will examine our assumptions and help us reach a clearer understanding of what we ought to do and why.