Assessment Questions

shareholders and all others affected by the actions of the organization The outcome is the determining factor, not the intent of the actors or whether people are treated humanely.

2.5 Deontology: Ethics as Duty

Rejecting dogmatic thinking of all kinds, Kant believed people were not the sum total of reactions to stimuli but complex beings with innate structures of understanding and inborn moral sensitivity. In his view, everyone had a duty to obey a categorical imperative to do the just and moral thing, regardless of the consequences. The outcome of an act was not as important as the intent of the actor and whether the act treated others as ends or means. Here, Kant reflected Aristotelian virtue ethics in seeing people as ends in themselves and not as “living tools” or human resources. This view does not typically govern most management decisions in business; arguably, utilitarianism is the efficient, go-to theory on which corporate leaders often rely. Yet a Kantian understanding of business ethics remains viable even today and sometimes displays itself in the most compassionate and humane actions that evolving commercial organizations take.

2.6 A Theory of Justice

Rawls developed a theory of justice based on social contract theory, holding that the natural state of human beings is freedom, not subjugation to a monarch, no matter how benign or well intentioned. Rawls’s theory views human beings as inherently good and, echoing Kant, inclined toward moral rectitude and action. In his theory, Rawls included the “veil of ignorance,” which ensures objectivity in our choices and the avoidance of bias. Criticism of Rawls’s theory focuses primarily on the issue of distribution, because decisions made in ignorance can neither reward innovation and enterprise nor encourage risk.

1 . Which of the following is not an intellectual virtue according to Aristotle? a. the basic order of life b. knowledge c. wisdom d. prudence 2 . Deliberative prudence does all the following except ________. a. align ends and means b. encourage prodigality c. avoid conflict d. prevent rash behavior 3 . According to Aristotle, happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul. a. True b. False 4 . It is possible to act deliberately and shrewdly in a good way or toward a good end. a. True b. False 5 . How might virtue ethics apply to contemporary business? 6 . Quan means which of the following? a. adherence to the past b. philosophic tradition c. practicality d. insistence on protocol 7 . The Analects of Confucius ________. a. are similar to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics b. represent an oral tradition c. reflect Buddhist ideals d. codify a system of virtue ethics 8 . Confucian virtue ethics is similar to the Aristotelian version in that both are very practical. a. True b. False 9 . According to Confucius, the hope for reform of Chinese society was a centralized planning system. a. True b. False 10 . How can wholeheartedness and sincerity serve as models of risk assessment? 11 . "Control" as used in this section does not refer to which of the following? a. reverence b. phrónēsis c. temperance d. Confucian self-regulation 12 . Managerial ethics is related to which of the following? a. shareholder wealth b. righteousness c. bureaucracy d. honor 13 . In both East and West, the means used to achieve a certain end are often more important than the end. a. True b. False 14 . Individualism was the greatest value in Confucian ethics. a. True b. False 15 . Utilitarianism is a system that ________. a. considers historical conditions b. approaches Aristotelian deliberation c. builds on natural law theory d. attempts to quantify the good 16 . In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill ________. a. proposes a harm principle b. exalts libertarianism c. prescribes a consequentialist answer to ethical crises d. rejects rights 17 . John Stuart Mill’s emphasis on human rights distinguishes him from Jeremy Bentham. a. True b. False 18 . How does utilitarianism affect contemporary business practice? 19 . Does the value that John Stuart Mill placed on the deliberative process and individual expression as the main ways of arriving at truth have any relevance for political debate today? 20 . Immanuel Kant objected to dogmatism in ________. a. religion b. science c. both A and B d. neither A nor B 21 . Immanuel Kant contended that people often interpret reason subjectively. a. True b. False 22 . A criticism of Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative is that its refusal ever to permit exceptions in acting ethically is impossible to observe in life. a. True b. False 23 . What are the essential differences between John Stuart Mill’s version of utilitarianism and Immanuel Kant’s deontology? 24 . How does Kantian ethics work in a business setting? 25 . John Rawls’s theory of justice is based on which of the following? a. cognitive structures b. moral duty c. social contract theory d. survival of the fittest 26 . The "veil of ignorance" ensures which of the following? a. mass delusion b. objectivity c. self-reliance d. Enlightenment reason 27 . John Rawls’s theory of justice is mainly non-Utilitarian. a. True b. False 28 . A distinguishing characteristic of justice theory is that it emphasizes method over content. a. True b. False 29 . What challenges does Rawlsian justice theory present when it comes to the redistribution of goods and services in society?