A philosophical study of moral issues in business. Topics include corporate responsibility, conflicts of interest, morality in advertising, preferential hiring (minorities and women), personal morality versus employer loyalty, and cultural theoretical issues and their impact on business decisions. The course uses real case studies, including the Ford Pinto case, and requires no prerequisites.
Philosophical rigor applied to genuinely practical business dilemmas
The course explicitly treats business ethics as a philosophical study, applying genuine ethical theory rigor to real business dilemmas rather than offering surface-level corporate compliance guidance.
Real cases anchoring abstract moral questions
PHL-316 grounds its ethical analysis in genuine historical business cases like the Ford Pinto, ensuring abstract questions about corporate responsibility are tested against real, consequential business decisions.
Key topics in PHL316
- Corporate responsibility
- Conflicts of interest
- Morality in advertising
- Preferential hiring practices
- Personal morality versus employer loyalty
- Case study analysis (e.g., Ford Pinto)
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Worked example: philosophical rigor applied to a real corporate decision
- Surface-level approach: Discussing corporate ethics in generic, abstract terms without examining a specific real decision
- PHL-316's approach: Applying philosophical ethical analysis to a genuine historical case like the Ford Pinto to examine what went wrong and why
- Lesson: PHL-316 teaches that grounding ethical theory in real business cases produces genuinely rigorous, consequential ethical analysis, not abstract discussion disconnected from real decisions
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Frequently asked questions
Business ethics dilemmas — conflicts of interest, corporate responsibility, personal morality versus employer loyalty — involve genuine philosophical tensions between competing values that a simple compliance checklist can't resolve, requiring the deeper ethical theory tools (utilitarianism, deontology) covered elsewhere in the philosophy curriculum. PHL-316 approaches business ethics philosophically because genuinely navigating these dilemmas well requires this rigorous ethical reasoning, not just knowing which rules to follow.
Abstract discussion of corporate responsibility or conflicts of interest can feel disconnected from real consequences, while examining an actual historical case where a real ethical failure led to genuine, serious harm forces students to grapple with how ethical theory applies — or fails to be applied — under real business pressures and incentives. PHL-316 uses cases like the Ford Pinto because this concrete grounding makes the philosophical analysis genuinely consequential, not merely theoretical.