Ciceronian Business Ethics

[hernan]

I came across this and thought it might be interesting to start a thread here.

"Nonetheless, making money is the goal of business, and more often than not, one is trying to take money from another, at the least possible cost. Such action is necessarily self-centered, if not selfish, and requires acting in a way that we would not want to see people act in all of their dealings with others, especially in regard to family, friends, and others with whom they have special social bonds. Granting that business practices are not compartmentalized against all ethical considerations, the fact that business demands maximization of profit entails that special rules apply. Determining what these are, in what circumstances they are less demanding than the ethical principles of everyday life, and in what circumstances they are more demanding, is the domain of business ethics, as a special domain of ethical philosophy."

http://www.historyofethics.org/112006/112006Goldin.html

Anyone interested in investing the time might want to develop a reply for submission to the above journal.

[KendallJ]

The basic flaw here being that wealth is a static quantity, and business entails transfer, not creation, of wealth. Take out that assumption and all that follows will crumble.

[hernan]

The basic flaw here being that wealth is a static quantity, and business entails transfer, not creation, of wealth. Take out that assumption and all that follows will crumble.

You are probably right that this would be the best focal point for uprooting the argument.

Of course, the readership in these forums is pretty homogeneous on this subject. What is most interesting to me is that such a well researched article should begin with such a flimsy and erroneous description of business.

The author of the article went on to cite the ethical theories of Cicero as if he were representative of the moral thinking of his time. But, of course, Cicero was a Roman and what do we remember the Romans for? Not their business accumen.

Objectivism is a relatively new moral philosophy but I have always wondered whether the ideas were all that original. After all, commerce is as old as civilization itself. Were there ancient proto-Objectivists? Or was ethical selfishness an idea held only by those who did not record their thoughts for future generations?