This book introduces a study of ethics and values to develop a deeper understanding of markets, business, and economic life. Its distinctive features include a thorough integration of personal and institutional perspectives; applied ethics and political philosophy; and philosophy, business, and economics.
Part 1 introduces a study of markets, property rights, and law. Part 2 examines the purpose and responsibilities of corporations. Parts 3 and 4 analyze economic life through the ethics and values of welfare and efficiency, liberty, rights, equality, desert, personal character, community, and the common good.
This Third Edition maintains the strengths of previous editions—short, digestible chapters and engaging writing that explains challenging ideas clearly. The material is easily adaptable with suggested course outlines, separable chapters, and flexible applications to case studies. This book is designed for interdisciplinary programs in philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE), as well as courses in business ethics.
Updates to the Third Edition include the:
- addition of a new Introductory chapter on the value of an ethical life
- coverage of developments in AI, including copyrights and patent implications, social media companies and CSR, ethical differences between AI and human personality, and impacts on meaningful work
- integration of recent scholarship, bringing discussions and references up to date
- improvement of the writing across all chapters, making the book easier to read
- addition of new material on the is-ought gap in Chapter 1 with revised discussion of personal and institutional points of view
- editing and repositioning of consequentialist and deontological ethics in Chapter 3
- revision of appendix for Instructors that includes different syllabi possibilities for different types of courses and brief teaching tips relevant for each chapter
The eBook of the Third Edition now includes hyperlinks (1) between when a term is first used in the main text and its definition in the Glossary and (2) between germane sections when they are cross-referenced.
Steven Scalet is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Hoffberger Center for Ethical Engagement at the University of Baltimore. Prior to coming to Baltimore, Scalet was the Director of the Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Law at Binghamton University (SUNY), where he received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Scalet is the author of many scholarly articles and the editor of Morality and Moral Controversies: Readings in Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy, 10th Edition (Routledge, 2019).
Cover image: Gary Yeowell / Getty Images
0 The Value of an Ethical Life
0.1 Introduction
0.2 Why Study Ethics?
0.3 Skepticism and Ethics
0.4 Values as Guidance
0.5 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
Part 1
Foundations
1 Markets
1.0 Introduction
1.1 What Are Market Exchanges?
1.2 Why Begin This Study With Market Exchanges?
1.3 Debates About How to Define Markets
1.4 Blocked Exchanges
1.5 Background Conditions for Markets to Operate
1.6 Summary
1.7 Looking Ahead
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
Appendix: Dialogues That Shape This Book
1.A1 Descriptive and Normative Analysis
1.A2 Personal and Institutional Points of View
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
2 Property Rights
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Property as Relations Among People
2.2 Hohfeld’s Conception of Property Rights
2.3 Tips for Learning and Applying Property Relations
2.4 Ownership and a Bundle of Sticks
2.5 Further Distinctions
2.6 Patents and Intellectual Property
2.7 The Limits of Property Rights
2.8 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
3 Property Rights, Markets, and Law
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Property Rights and Markets
3.2 Property Rights and Law
3.3 Property Rights and Culture
3.4 Economic Systems Today
3.5 Why Study Property Rights?
3.6 Relativism
3.7 Two Normative Theories About Property Rights
3.8 Summary
3.9 Looking Ahead
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
Part 2
The Purpose and Responsibilities of Corporations
4 Shareholder Primacy Theory of Corporations
4.0 Introduction
4.1 A Debate
4.2 Corporate Purpose: Advance Shareholder Interests By Maximizing Profits Within the Law
4.3 Debates About Shareholder Rights and Managerial Duties
4.4 Ethical Justifications
4.5 Interpreting the CSR Movement From the Shareholder Perspective
4.6 Separating the Roles of Business and Government
4.7 Self-Interest and Markets
4.8 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
5 Stakeholder Theory of Corporations
5.0 Introduction 68
5.1 A Global Perspective: “All Is Not Well” 68
5.2 Corporate Purpose, Stakeholder Rights, and Managerial Duties 70
5.3 Ethical Justifications 74
5.4 Interpreting the CSR Movement From a Stakeholder Perspective 76
5.5 Corporations and Government 78
5.6 Ethics, Self-Interest, and Markets 79
5.7 Personal and Institutional Points of View Revisited 81
5.8 Other Theories of Corporate Purpose 83
5.9 Corporate Personhood 83
5.10 Summary 84
Discussion Questions 85
Further Readings 87
Part 3
Efficiency and Welfare: Common Ethical Guides in Business
and Economics
6 Efficiency and Welfare
6.0 Introduction
6.1 Pareto Efficiency as an Ethical Ideal
6.2 How Idealized Markets Create Efficiency Gains
6.3 Background Conditions
6.4 How Actual Markets Approximate Ideal Markets
6.5 How Efficiency Is a Basis for Criticizing Markets
6.6 The Ethical and Practical Appeal of the Efficiency Standard
6.7 Complications About the Meaning of Efficiency
6.8 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
7 Public Goods, Responsibility, and Utilitarianism
7.0 Introduction
7.1 Public Goods
7.2 Two Neighborhoods and a Park: A Public Goods Problem
7.3 The Tragedy of the Commons
7.4 Responsibility for Collective Action Problems
7.5 Limitations to Pareto Efficiency as a Normative Standard
7.6 Utilitarianism
7.7 Attractions and Limitations of Utilitarianism
7.8 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
8 The Invisible Hand: Ethics, Incentives, and Institutions
8.0 Introduction
8.1 The Invisible Hand Model
8.2 The Government Regulation Model
8.3 The Professional Ethics Model
8.4 Conflicts of Interest
8.5 The Dance Between Ethics, Incentives, and Institutions
8.6 Beyond Welfare
8.7 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
Part 4
Ethics Beyond Efficiency
9 Liberty
9.0 Introduction
9.1 Two Concepts of Liberty
9.2 Freedom and Ethics
9.3 Kantian Ethics
9.4 Institutional Implications of Negative Freedom
9.5 Institutional Implications of Positive Freedom
9.6 Two Visions of a Free Society: Positive and Negative Freedom
9.7 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
10 Rights
10.0 Introduction
10.1 Preliminaries
10.2 Rights as Side-Constraints
10.3 Rights and Markets: Nozick’s Entitlement Theory of Justice
10.4 Applying the Entitlement Theory to Global Capitalism
10.5 Criticisms of Nozick’s Entitlement Theory of Justice
10.6 Justifying Rights
10.7 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
11 Equality
11.0 Introduction
11.1 Fundamental Equality
11.2 Implications for Institutions
11.3 Professional Ethics and the Personal Point of View
11.4 Social Contract Theory: Liberty and Equality Joined
11.5 Rawls’s Theory of Justice
11.6 Beyond Rawls: Businesses and the Social Contract
11.7 Integrative Social Contracts Theory
11.8 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
12 What People Deserve
12.0 Introduction
12.1 The Concept of Desert
12.2 Deserved Wages
12.3 Desert and Professional Ethics
12.4 Capitalism and Debates About the Relevance of Desert
12.5 Deserving Anything at All
12.6 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
13 Personal Relationships and Character
13.0 Introduction
13.1 Relationships
13.2 Criticisms of Markets and Capitalism Based on Relationships and Character
13.3 Virtue Ethics
13.4 Ayn Rand and Virtuous Rational Egoism
13.5 The Ethics of Care
13.6 Religious and Non-Western Ethical Approaches: Less of the Self
13.7 Integrating Earlier Debates on Relationships and Character
13.8 Advocating Markets and Capitalism Based on Relationships and Character
13.9 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
14 Community and the Common Good
14.0 Introduction
14.1 Creative Destruction and Community: Institutional Perspective
14.2 Change and Tradition From the Personal Point of View
14.3 Markets That Undermine Communities
14.4 Markets That Build Communities
14.5 The Meaning of the Common Good
14.6 Communitarianism
14.7 Justice and the Common Good: Complementary or Conflicting Values?
14.8 Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Readings
Supplemental Materials
I. A Primer on Ethics
II. The Overall Approach of the Book
III. Syllabi Suggestions
IV. Summary
Key Terms
Biography
Steven Scalet is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Hoffberger Center for Ethical Engagement at the University of Baltimore. Prior to Baltimore, Scalet was the Director of the Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Law at Binghamton University (SUNY), where he received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Scalet received his PhD in Philosophy and MA in Economics from the University of Arizona. Scalet is the author of many articles and the editor of Morality and Moral Controversies: Readings in Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy, 10th Edition (Routledge, 2019).
"The 3rd Edition of Markets, Ethics, and Business Ethics offers a comprehensive introduction to the ethical, economic, and political study of markets, and of the people who affect and are affected by them. It speaks directly to students and readers, taking them on an intellectual journey through the diversity and complexity of ethical thought, without dumbing ideas down, or offering facile solutions. This latest edition extends itself to include current research discussions, such as the growth and implications of Artificial Intelligence in business. As such, it is an ideal text for students interested in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels."
-Prof. David Silver, Chair of Business and Professional Ethics in the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, co-appointed to the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, author of ‘Corporations and Persons: a theory of the firm in democratic society’ (Forthcoming).
"Markets, Ethics, and Business Ethics, Third Edition, is still the go-to introductory text for classes in business ethics and Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law programs. Professor Scalet raises all the right issues and ethical questions, and he’s always clear about why we’re asking these questions in the first place. The book’s integrative nature allows students to make connections between theory and practice in ways that will improve their own thinking and behavior in social and economic life."
-Terry L. Price, Coston Family Chair in Leadership and Ethics, Professor of Leadership Studies and PPEL, University of Richmond, USA.
