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8Lying about Reservation Prices in Business Negotiation: A Qualified Defense (Commentary) – CorrigendumBusiness Ethics Quarterly 33 (4): 790-790. 2023.
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22The Contours of Corporate Moral AgencyLaw and Philosophy 42 (6): 535-560. 2023.This article defends skepticism about the moral agency of corporations, arguing that even if we accept the idea that there exist group moral agents, it makes little sense to suppose that the corporation itself can qualify as such an agent. The discussion considers and rejects arguments from Philip Pettit, Peter French, and Michael Bratman. It concludes that we should not criminally prosecute corporations.
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25Lying about Reservation Prices in Business Negotiation: A Qualified DefenseBusiness Ethics Quarterly 33 (4): 763-776. 2023.This essay offers a philosophical defense of deception about reservation prices in business negotiation. Its discussion is prompted by arguments that Charles N.C. Sherwood makes in a recent issue of Business Ethics Quarterly and develops ideas I put forward in an earlier issue of Business Ethics Quarterly. The essay argues that although reservation price deception cannot be justified by appeal to the consent of negotiating parties, it can be justified by appeal to a separate but related notion, …Read more
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95Pairwise comparison and numbers skepticismUtilitas 19 (4): 487-504. 2007.In this article, we defend pairwise comparison as a method to resolve conflicting claims from different people that cannot be jointly satisfied because of a scarcity of resources. We consider Michael Otsuka's recent challenge that pairwise comparison leads to intransitive choices for the (someone who believes the numbers should not count in forced choices among lives) and Frances Kamm's responses to Otsuka's challenge. We argue that Kamm's responses do not succeed, but that the threat they are d…Read more
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51Corporations and JusticeRoutledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2019.For the past half century, there has been a large controversy within academic business ethics, in legal scholarship, and in the larger public about the role that corporations should have in addressing social injustices. Do corporations have a moral obligation to conduct business in a way that reduces poverty, racial inequality, other unjust economic and social inequalities, and unjust threats to the environment? Or should for-profit corporations focus on making money and leave solutions of these…Read more
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54New Directions in Legal Scholarship: Implications for Business Ethics Research, Theory, and PracticeBusiness Ethics Quarterly 20 (3): 503-531. 2010.ABSTRACT:Legal scholars and business ethicists are interested in many of the same core issues regarding human and firm behavior. The vast amount of legal research being generated by nearly 10,000 law school and business law scholars will inevitably influence business ethics research. This paper describes some of the recent trends in legal scholarship and explores its implications for three significant aspects of business ethics research—methodology, theory, and policy.
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69Respectful LyingEthical Theory and Moral Practice 19 (4): 961-972. 2016.I argue that there are instances in which lying to an innocent and generally competent person respects her autonomy, contrary to arguments by Christine Korsgaard and Onora O’Neill. These authors say that respect for a person’s autonomy requires treating her in a way consistent with the possibility of consent, but I contend that the possibility of consent condition is unworkable. I maintain that lying can respect individual autonomy when being truthful to a person undermines her choices and lying…Read more
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2Insider Trading: A Moral ProblemPhilosophy and Public Policy Quarterly 29 (3/4): 12-16. 2009.It turns out to be more difficult than one might think to identify the central moral wrong at the heart of this much publicized and vilified crime
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227The Distinctive Wrong in LyingEthical Theory and Moral Practice 13 (2): 171-179. 2010.In this essay I will argue, as does Bernard Williams, that lying and misleading are both commonly wrong because they involve an aim to breach a trust. I will also argue, contrary to Williams, that lying and misleading threaten trust differently, and that when they are wrong, they are wrong differently. Indeed, lying may be wrong when misleading is not.
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23Workplace Civility: A Confucian ApproachBusiness Ethics Quarterly 22 (3): 557-577. 2012.ABSTRACT:We argue that Confucianism makes a fundamental contribution to understanding why civility is necessary for a morally decent workplace. We begin by reviewing some limits that traditional moral theories face in analyzing issues of civility. We then seek to establish a Confucian alternative. We develop the Confucian idea that even in business, humans may be sacred when they observe rituals culturally determined to express particular ceremonial significance. We conclude that managers and wo…Read more
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73Mass torts and moral principlesLaw and Philosophy 11 (4). 1992.This paper examines moral problems that arise when assigning liability in causally problematic mass exposure tort cases. It examines the relevance of different conceptions of corrective justice for such assignments of liability. It explores an analogy between the expressive role of punishment and the expressive role of tort, and argues that the imposition of liability in causally problematic mass exposure cases can be justified by appeal to expressive considerations.
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67The first dogma of deontology: The doctrine of doing and allowing and the notion of a sayPhilosophical Studies 80 (1). 1995.
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32Deception and trustIn Clancy W. Martin (ed.), The Philosophy of Deception, Oxford University Press. pp. 139. 2009.
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1The moral problem in insider tradingIn George G. Brenkert & Tom L. Beauchamp (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, Oxford University Press. 2010.
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University of PennsylvaniaRegular Faculty
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America