The Business Case for Asserting the Business Case for Business Ethics

摘要

The upshot of this article of mine is that while there are almost certainly personal and corporate material payoffs to be made from asserting the business case for business ethics, such payoffs can at best be only "handmaids of [moral] virtue" in business and at worst, serious threats to individuals' understanding of and action consistent with moral virtue, as well as threats to the very institution of morality. Whatever business case there is for business ethics itself or for the assertion of the business case for business ethics, such business cases are not moral arguments and are no more morally praiseworthy than the business cases for selling any other product from automobiles to zippers.On September 3, 2010, I sent the following message to Maclean's and Jantzi-Sustainalytics; so far no reply has been received.