Ethics | Lecture Summary
Lecture 1: Introduction to Ethics and Business Ethics
- The Antique Dealer is a little case:
An antique dealer visits a farmer by coincidence. The farmer invites the dealer for a
coffee. During the coffee, the dealer notices a cabinet with a value of at least EUR
25,000. The farmer doesn't recognize its value. The dealer offers to help the farmer
and is willing to pay EUR 1000.
Is this a clever business man? Or is he acting wrong?
- Things to consider when thinking of the antique dealer:
• Harm? Is everybody better off?
• Fair price?
• Rights/thefts?
• Misuse of trust?
• The antique dealer is part of a company: Does he have employees? Is he the
owner? Does the make a difference? Personal ethics vs. ethics of a corporation.
- The theories that are involved in the antique dealer situation:
• Utilitarianism: maximising welfare.
• Rights and justice
• Virtue ethics/communitarianism
- Jan Six and Rembrandt case:
Jan Six discovers a Rembrandt that is being auctioned at Christies. He seeks a co-
financier, Sander Bijl. The price is lower than expected as it is sold as a replicate, but
tends to be a real one. A scientist prof Ernst van der Wetering involved. Bijl and Van
der Wetering perceive Six as a liar.
- Question: Is bluffing ethical? Often compared with a poker game! The essential
factors are knowing and agreement.
- Simon Sinek argues that we should always start with why. Before we do things, we
should first think about why we do it.
- Sinek and Carse distinguished between finite and infinite games. A finite game is
played for the purpose of winning, an infinitive game for the purpose of continuing
the play.
- Simon argues that companies do not exist to win, but to meet human needs. He
says that leadership is a game that has five focus points:
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, 1. A higher goal
2. Courageous leadership
3. Mutual trust
4. A frothy rival
5. A flexible approach
- Moral judgment is the process by which one defines what is wrong, good, bad,
ethical, unethical, neutral, etc.
- Moral judgements can be either:
• Normative: is the study of how people ought to behave. It is an argumentative
discipline aimed at sorting out what behaviours (or rules for behaviour) would be
best.
• Descriptive: is the study of how people do behave, and how they think they
should behave.
- Conflicting norms and values:
• Dilemmas
• Conflicting values/norms
• Necessity to act
• Choice between two evils/good solutions
• Not black and white
- Moral Identity generally refers to the degree to which being a moral person is
important to an individual's identity. There are three factors that form a person's
moral identity:
1. Individual
2. Organization
3. Society
- Pitfalls in moral judgments:
• Relativism: standards are subjective and culturally determined.
• Confusion of law and ethics
• Ethics yields money
• An enterprise has different obligations than natural persons: shifting
responsibility.
• Misunderstanding an affective relationship as a contract
• Paternalism: restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate.
• Objectivism: the belief that certain things, especially moral truths, exist
independently of human knowledge or perception of them.
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Lecture 1: Introduction to Ethics and Business Ethics
- The Antique Dealer is a little case:
An antique dealer visits a farmer by coincidence. The farmer invites the dealer for a
coffee. During the coffee, the dealer notices a cabinet with a value of at least EUR
25,000. The farmer doesn't recognize its value. The dealer offers to help the farmer
and is willing to pay EUR 1000.
Is this a clever business man? Or is he acting wrong?
- Things to consider when thinking of the antique dealer:
• Harm? Is everybody better off?
• Fair price?
• Rights/thefts?
• Misuse of trust?
• The antique dealer is part of a company: Does he have employees? Is he the
owner? Does the make a difference? Personal ethics vs. ethics of a corporation.
- The theories that are involved in the antique dealer situation:
• Utilitarianism: maximising welfare.
• Rights and justice
• Virtue ethics/communitarianism
- Jan Six and Rembrandt case:
Jan Six discovers a Rembrandt that is being auctioned at Christies. He seeks a co-
financier, Sander Bijl. The price is lower than expected as it is sold as a replicate, but
tends to be a real one. A scientist prof Ernst van der Wetering involved. Bijl and Van
der Wetering perceive Six as a liar.
- Question: Is bluffing ethical? Often compared with a poker game! The essential
factors are knowing and agreement.
- Simon Sinek argues that we should always start with why. Before we do things, we
should first think about why we do it.
- Sinek and Carse distinguished between finite and infinite games. A finite game is
played for the purpose of winning, an infinitive game for the purpose of continuing
the play.
- Simon argues that companies do not exist to win, but to meet human needs. He
says that leadership is a game that has five focus points:
Page 1 of 14
, 1. A higher goal
2. Courageous leadership
3. Mutual trust
4. A frothy rival
5. A flexible approach
- Moral judgment is the process by which one defines what is wrong, good, bad,
ethical, unethical, neutral, etc.
- Moral judgements can be either:
• Normative: is the study of how people ought to behave. It is an argumentative
discipline aimed at sorting out what behaviours (or rules for behaviour) would be
best.
• Descriptive: is the study of how people do behave, and how they think they
should behave.
- Conflicting norms and values:
• Dilemmas
• Conflicting values/norms
• Necessity to act
• Choice between two evils/good solutions
• Not black and white
- Moral Identity generally refers to the degree to which being a moral person is
important to an individual's identity. There are three factors that form a person's
moral identity:
1. Individual
2. Organization
3. Society
- Pitfalls in moral judgments:
• Relativism: standards are subjective and culturally determined.
• Confusion of law and ethics
• Ethics yields money
• An enterprise has different obligations than natural persons: shifting
responsibility.
• Misunderstanding an affective relationship as a contract
• Paternalism: restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate.
• Objectivism: the belief that certain things, especially moral truths, exist
independently of human knowledge or perception of them.
Page 2 of 14
