Hum 25070 - Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics

Instructor: John Voss

The practices of modern business, finance, and economics have offered many recent examples of corporate and government malfeasance as well as troubling and even criminal financial activities. Among these are the Enron scandal, the AIG debacle, the mortgage-housing crisis, dubious credit-ratings and in some cases, government actions that have contributed to accelerating income inequality. This course aims to expose students to a powerful array of ethical frameworks with which to analyze these headline-grabbing business and economic cases, dilemmas, and issues. Students will be expected to gain a command of at least two ethical approaches and to apply them to at least one recent case of financial malfeasance. The class will follow a case study format, drawing on parallel readings that deal with issues of corporate practice, economic justice, and business ethics. 

In the mid-term and final papers, students will be asked to offer an ethical analysis of a recent business, financial or economic scandal, crisis or disturbing development (of the student’s choosing). Readings will be drawn from classic and current texts addressing the intersections between moral reasoning, business, economics, and finance, among them excerpts from John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, John Rawls, Lawrence Kohlberg, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Joseph Stieglitz, Thomas Piketty, Michael Lewis, and John Lancester.  Requirements: A mid-term and a final paper as well as informed, well-prepared participation in class discussions.