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CHAPTER 1
The Nature of Morality
Learning Objectives
After completing this chapter students should be able to:
Define the nature and sources of ethical and moral standards.
Distinguish between moral and non-moral questions.
Examine our business environment and debate the extent to which business ethics differs from
Glossary
1. argument: Perhaps the most important element of moral reasoning, which is a group of
statements. One or more of these statements are premises and one of them is a conclusion. The
premises are reasons to believe the conclusion.
2. argument form: The form of reasoning an argument uses. The same form of reasoning can
underlie different arguments and statements. The argument “All men are mortal, Socrates is a
man, therefore Socrates is mortal” uses the argument form “All A are B, C is a B, therefore C is
an A.” Argument forms can be valid or invalid.
Chapter Summary Points
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1. Morality deals with individual character and the moral rules that are meant to govern and limit
our conduct. It investigates questions of right and wrong, duty and obligation, and moral
responsibility. 'Ethics' can be used as a synonym for 'morality' but it can also refer to 'moral
philosophy.' Philosophy is a quest for knowledge through reason. Moral philosophy can help us
attain improved moral opinions by learning how to apply logic and good reasoning to morality.
We can do this (in part) by considering multiple perspectives, arguing, and theorizing.
2. Business ethics is a form of moral philosophy that helps us determine what's morally right or
wrong in a business (or organizational) context.
3. Moral standards concern behavior that has serious consequences for human well-being, and they
take priority over other standards, including self-interest. Their soundness depends on the
adequacy of the reasons that support or justify them.
4. Morality must be distinguished from etiquette (rules for well-mannered behavior), from law
(statutes, regulations, common law, and constitutional law), and from professional codes of ethics
(the special rules governing the members of a profession).
5. Morality is not necessarily based on religion. Although we draw our moral beliefs from many
sources, for philosophers the issue is whether those beliefs can be justified.
6. Ethical relativism is the theory that right and wrong are determined by what one’s society says is
right and wrong. There are many problems with this theory. Also dubious is the theory that
business has its own morality, divorced from ordinary ideas of right and wrong.
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Teaching Suggestions
1. Ethics – This is the first exposure that many students will have had to ethics. Therefore, at the
beginning of the course, it may be useful to distinguish three areas of ethics: descriptive ethics, normative
ethics, and metaethics.
Descriptive ethics is simply the description of the ethical beliefs of a certain group of people. It is a matter
of sociology or anthropology, not philosophy. By contrast, normative ethics attempts to answer
substantive questions of right and wrong. For example, determining whether insider trading really is
morally permissible or impermissible—not simply whether a particular group of people thinks it is
permissible or impermissible—is an issue of normative ethics.
a. Capital punishment is wrong.
b. Helping the poor is good.
c. It is wrong to harm other people.
d. Child abuse is wrong.
There are two things you can point out here. First, all of these moral claims seem to use language that
functions informatively and not just emotively. That is, they state that something is or is not the case. This
is important because if the language is not functioning informatively, then there cannot be arguments
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2. Argumentation –This is the first exposure that many students will have had to philosophy. This is one
reason why the discussion of logic and argumentation is important. It should be emphasized that this is a
philosophy class and we should do our best to justify our arguments using valid arguments. Shaw and
Barry do not discuss what argument form is, but understanding logical validity requires us to have at least
An example of an argument is the following:
1. Hurting people just to benefit yourself is wrong.
2. If hurting people just to benefit yourself is wrong, then it's wrong to kill people just to take their
money for yourself.
3. Therefore, it's wrong to kill people just to take their money for yourself.
This argument can be stripped of its content to reveal the following argument form:
1. A.
2. If A, then B.
3. Therefore, B.
Other arguments can use this argument form. For example:
1. Charity is always wrong.
2. If charity is always wrong, then giving money to the poor is wrong.
3. Therefore, giving money to the poor is wrong.
Counterexamples should use the same argument form as an argument, but the premises should be true and
the conclusion should be false. This proves that the argument form can have true premises and a false
conclusion at the same time, and that is sufficient proof to show that an argument is invalid. An example
of an invalid argument is the following:
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It should be made clear that valid arguments are not necessarily good arguments, but good arguments
should be valid. If an argument isn't valid, then it's unreliable. Even if the premises are true, the
conclusion could be false anyway.
When having a class debate or analyzing arguments in class, it's a good idea to make sure that the
arguments are valid. Students often have unstated assumptions they think are “too obvious to mention”
and arguments can be valid once these assumptions are found. For example, a student might argue that
Questions for Discussion
Introduction
How far must manufacturers go to ensure product safety? Must they reveal everything about a product,
including any possible defects or shortcomings? At what point does acceptable exaggeration become lying
about a product or a service? When does aggressive marketing become consumer manipulation? Is
advertising useful and important or deceptive, misleading, and socially detrimental? When are prices
unfair or exploitative?
Are corporations obliged to help combat social problems? What are the environmental responsibilities of
business, and is it living up to them? Are pollution permits a good idea? Is factory farming morally
justifiable?
Business and Organizational Ethics
Would it be right for a store manager to break a promise to a customer and sell some hard-to-find
merchandise to someone else, whose need for it is greater?
What, if anything, should a moral employee do when his or her superiors refuse to look into apparent
wrong-doing in a branch office?
If you innocently came across secret information about a competitor, would it be permissible for you to
use it for your own advantage?
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Additional Resources for Exploring Chapter Content
Further Reading
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Is Business Bluffing Ethical?” by Albert Carr
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Internet Resources
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