Business Ethics Notes

Encompasses the moral principles and standards that guide behaviour in the business world, influencing how individuals and organizations operate.
Business Organizations : Entrepreneurship, Partnership, Corporation

Business acts can be done knowingly and freely, with agents aware of the morality of these acts (good or bad) and having a choice to perform them.
They can lead to serious human injuries.
Business acts can violate moral rights, making them appropriate for deontological moral evaluations.
They can result in unfair distribution of benefits and burdens, making them appropriate for moral evaluations using the standard of justice.
They can lead to environmental damages.

The Invisible-Hand Argument: Economic forces (e.g., supply and demand) ensure business activity leads to the common good.
The Legal Argument: Laws are sufficient to ensure that business activities do not result in morally undesirable behaviour; legality equals morality.
The Amorality Argument: Business and morality are distinct spheres with separate rules; morality cannot be applied to business.
The Immorality Argument: The primary motive of business (profit-making) is incompatible with motives of morality (benevolence); business ethics is an oxymoron.

Capitalism - private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society. Some argue that capitalism is inherently good, fostering free choices and generating wealth, while others criticize it for potential exploitation and inequality.