•  191
    In Defense of a Utilitarian Business Ethic
    Business and Society Review 118 (3): 325-360. 2013.
    In this article, I suggest and support a utilitarian approach to business ethics. Utilitarianism is already widely used as a business ethic approach, although it is not well developed in the literature. Utilitarianism provides a guiding framework of decision making rooted in social benefit which helps direct business toward more ethical behavior. It is the basis for much of our discussion regarding the failures of Enron, Worldcom, and even the subprime mess and Wall Street Meltdown. In short, th…Read more
  •  68
    Making Sense of Postmodern Business Ethics
    Business Ethics Quarterly 10 (3): 645-658. 2000.
    In this paper I will help provide some suggestions for a “postmodern” business ethic. I will do this by criticizing some recent work done in the field, and then put forth some basic themes in postmodern thinking that might be applied to business ethics. I will here criticize both Green’s and Walton’s articles on the possibility of postmodern business ethics. I will criticize Green on the grounds that his characterization of the definitive elements of postmodern thought are not definitive of post…Read more
  •  65
    Rorty, Caputo and business ethics without metaphysics: ethical theories as normative narratives
    Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility 19 (2): 140-153. 2010.
    Using the works of Richard Rorty and John Caputo, I want to suggest that we might be better off treating the traditional ethical theories of Kant, Mill, Aristotle and Hobbes as normative narratives rather than as justificatory schemes for moral decision making to be set up against one another. In a spirit akin to Husserl's ‘bracketing’ of metaphysics, when discussing ethical theories in business ethics, we can easily avoid metaphysics and use an approach that sees ethical theory as socially conv…Read more
  •  44
    In Support of Ethical Holism
    Business Ethics Quarterly 10 (2): 441-450. 2000.
    In much of the written work on Christian or religious business ethics, a holistic framework is assumed but not argued for practicallyor supported philosophically. In this article I 1) outline a position of ethical holism, explaining its logic, motives, and consequences; 2)attack the ethical dualism of Carr, Friedman, and French; and 3) defend my theory against five possible objections. My basic thesisis that if a corporation wishes to hire employees who will act in compliance with ethical codes …Read more
  •  42
    Dating, the Ethics of Competition, and Heath’s Market Failures Approach
    Business Ethics Journal Review 6 (9): 47-53. 2018.
    In “The Responsibilities and Role of Business in Relation to Society,” Nien-hê Hsieh challenges Joseph Heath’s “market failure” or Paretian approach to business ethics by arguing for a “Back to Basics” approach. Here, I argue that two basics of Hsieh’s three-basics vision are flawed, because a. ordinary morality is in fact not sufficient for the adversarial realm of the market, and b. the ideal of a Pareto-optimal market economy with perfect competition does in fact provide an adequate basis for…Read more
  •  34
  •  31
    This article presents a reading of Mill in which his view of self is social rather than individualistic. I will provide criticisms of the radically-individualist interpretations of Mill offered by John Gray, R. P. Anschutz, and Robert Wolff. Gray and Anschutz get Mill wrong from the right, and Wolff gets Mill wrong from the left. Mill’s individualism has at times been overstated, leading to a neglect of the importance that he places on positive community influence of moral agents. This heavy emp…Read more
  •  29
    Utilitarians and Religion (review)
    Faith and Philosophy 20 (2): 252-255. 2003.
  •  18
    Religious Tolerance through Humility (review)
    Faith and Philosophy 27 (2): 226-228. 2010.
  •  12
    This article presents a reading of Mill in which his view of self is social rather than individualistic. I will provide criticisms of the radically-individualist interpretations of Mill offered by John Gray, R. P. Anschutz, and Robert Wolff. Gray and Anschutz get Mill wrong from the right, and Wolff gets Mill wrong from the left. Mill’s individualism has at times been overstated, leading to a neglect of the importance that he places on positive community influence of moral agents. This heavy emp…Read more
  •  6
    Mill on God (review)
    Faith and Philosophy 26 (3): 346-348. 2009.
  •  5
    Distributivism holds that private property should be widely distributed among as many as possible and that such a distribution best serves the common good. This paper applies a distributist approach rooted in subsidiarity to the contemporary issue of the unaffordability of single-family homes and the impact of investors buying up more single-family homes, increasing their own wealth at the expense of typical home buyers. Here, we will first consider multiple factors in the housing “crisis,” then…Read more
  •  5
    Virtue Ethics
    In Deborah C. Poff & Alex C. Michalos (eds.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer Verlag. pp. 1856-1859. 2021.
  •  4
    The Economy of Communion Movement as Humanistic Management
    Humanistic Management Journal 8 (2): 149-166. 2023.
    In this essay we will demonstrate that the Economy of Communion (EoC) movement provides a very good example of Humanistic Management (HM) as characterized by Domènec Melé in particular. EoC provides a unique lens through which to conceive of Humanistic Management which is extraordinarily person-centered, and which maps onto many of the key themes and principles of Humanistic Management practice. We will here present nine features of Humanistic Management which are clearly displayed in EoC schola…Read more
  •  4
    Mill has traditionally been seen as the archetypal liberal philosopher based on his promotion of the ''sovereign" self. Liberal in the classical sense denoted one who stood for the primacy of individual freedom over against the masses. In nineteenth century Europe, the term often stood for freedom from church and state authority, the reduction of the power of royalty and aristocracy, capitalism, and the development of the individual as free as possible from the interference of others. In express…Read more
  •  2
    In this essay, we highlight 7 distinctives of EoC businesses which set them apart even from other humanistic approaches to management. Not that EoC’s distinctives make them a non-humanistic form of management, but they distinguish it with a unique set of goals and aims. These are: 1. Social and Economic Transformation Towards Unity; 2. The existential Self giving aspect—Creating a Culture of Encounter; 3. Redistributing Wealth for the Common Good; 4. Concern to Alleviate Poverty in All of Its Fo…Read more
  •  1
    Pragmatism and Business Ethics
    In Deborah C. Poff & Alex C. Michalos (eds.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer Verlag. pp. 1482-1487. 2021.
  •  1
    Mill on God (review)
    Faith and Philosophy 26 (3): 346-348. 2009.
  • God, the Gift, and Postmodernism
    Philosophia Christi 2 (1): 147-149. 2000.
  • Consequentialism and non-consequentialism
    In Eugene Heath, Byron Kaldis & Alexei M. Marcoux (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics, Routledge. 2018.
  • Categorizing pain
    In Murat Aydede (ed.), Pain: New Essays on its Nature and the Methodology of its Study, Bradford Book/mit Press. 2005.
  • Business Ethics Without Metaphysics
    In Deborah C. Poff & Alex C. Michalos (eds.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer Verlag. pp. 278-281. 2021.