•  5
    The Managerial Use of Empathy: Missteps into the Mind of Others
    Philosophy of Management 21 (2): 135-161. 2021.
    Within the business and management literature, empathy has taken on increased importance as a central element to leadership, improving marketing strategies, corporate philanthropy, creating organizational connectedness, and as a strategy for preventing managerial wrongdoing. Although defining empathy is difficult, it is the identification with another’s thoughts and emotions through an imaginative process. This identification, ideally, will facilitate a wider connection with stakeholders beyond …Read more
  •  11
    The history of ethics often presupposes rationalist thinking on moral issues. An alternative to rationalism has been proposed by the social intuitionist model. This model suggests the bulk of our moral decisions are ‘gut reactions’ or intuitions. Unlike the rationalists, which support reasons and deliberation to draw moral conclusions, intuitionists argue such reasoning is used to support preconceived ethical decisions. This paper provides the first investigation to determine if intuitionism has…Read more
  •  10
    Mirror neuron activation (MNA) has been applied to number of business ethics contexts including marketing, charitable giving, organizational connectedness, and leadership. Unfortunately, the business literature has often ignored research in philosophy and psychology which can provide insight into the application of mirror neurons to business contexts and other disciplines. I will argue that the use of mirror neurons to support business decisions cannot be established solely on the existence of n…Read more
  •  16
    The Managerial Use of Empathy: Missteps into the Mind of Others
    Philosophy of Management 86 (2): 135-161. 2022.
    Within the business and management literature, empathy has taken on increased importance as a central element to leadership, improving marketing strategies, corporate philanthropy, creating organizational connectedness, and as a strategy for preventing managerial wrongdoing. Although defining empathy is difficult, it is the identification with another’s thoughts and emotions through an imaginative process. This identification, ideally, will facilitate a wider connection with stakeholders beyond …Read more
  •  8
    The Origin of Folk Psychological Concepts 1
    Facta Philosophica 8 (1): 41-51. 2006.
  •  10
    Gaining Perspective on Perspective Taking
    Business Ethics Journal Review 5 (7): 40-45. 2017.
    Cojuharenco and Sguera’s study shows that both perspective taking and empathic concern can reduce the acceptability of lying. This critique outlines a number of conceptual difficulties and limitations with their dualistic model. Specifically, they conflate ethical reasoning with perspective taking and empathic concern with intuitionism. Moreover, by limiting moral thinking to these binary options it restricts the ways in which ethical judgements can be made.
  •  9
    Gaining Perspective on Perspective Taking
    Business Ethics Journal Review 5 (7): 40-46. 2017.
    Cojuharenco and Sguera’s study shows that both perspective taking and empathic concern can reduce the acceptability of lying. This critique outlines a number of conceptual difficulties and limitations with their dualistic model. Specifically, they conflate ethical reasoning with perspective taking and empathic concern with intuitionism. Moreover, by limiting moral thinking to these binary options it restricts the ways in which ethical judgements can be made.
  • William Hirstein, On The Churchlands Reviewed by
    Philosophy in Review 23 (5): 338-340. 2003.
  •  14
    Rationalism and a Vygotskian Alternative to Business Ethics Education
    Journal of Business Ethics Education 10 231-260. 2013.
    Studies have shown ethics education has not systematically improved the moral reasoning of business students and professionals and, therefore, its effectiveness should be seen as deeply questionable. Business ethics education has limited effect, in part, because it rests on rationalistic traditions within normative ethics, business theory, and cognitive psychology. Emphasis is usually placed on student’s rationally thinking about issues as a way of improving their critical analysis and reasoning…Read more
  •  3
    Explaining behaviour is ubiquitous in our society. We are constantly trying to figure out what other people are doing and will do. This study is a comprehensive investigation of the main philosophical and psychological problems regarding how and why humans explain behaviour. The author answers key questions about how folk psychology develops in children, its roots in evolution, its status within society, its relation to philosophy of mind, and what sorts of folk psychological explanations should…Read more
  •  89
    Imperfect Duties and Corporate Philanthropy: A Kantian Approach
    Journal of Business Ethics 106 (3): 367-381. 2012.
    Nonprofit organizations play a crucial role in society. Unfortunately, many such organizations are chronically underfunded and struggle to meet their objectives. These facts have significant implications for corporate philanthropy and Kant’s notion of imperfect duties. Under the concept of imperfect duties, businesses would have wide discretion regarding which charities receive donations, how much money to give, and when such donations take place. A perceived problem with imperfect duties is tha…Read more
  •  2
    Corporate Social Responsiblity: Concepts and Normative Ethics
    International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy 6 (4): 242-255. 2012.
    The history of the conceptualisation of social responsibility reveals three main themes: The profitability of SR, SR as stakeholder theory, and ethics as a force in SR. In this paper, I will argue that all three themes are philosophically unsound and rest on suspicious assumptions. First, there is little evidence that SR increases profits; second, stakeholder theory fails to give managers practical ethical decision-making skills; and, finally, ethics should not be viewed as a subset of social re…Read more
  • William Hirstein, On The Churchlands (review)
    Philosophy in Review 23 338-340. 2003.
  •  76
    Empathy, Folk Psychology, and Explaining Behaviour (review)
    Res Cogitans - Journal of Philosophy 5 (1): 39-56. 2008.
  •  6
    The Science of Creating Organizational Connectedness
    with Jim Silovs
    Business Ethics Journal Review 3 (2): 8-14. 2015.
  •  6
    No Title available: Dialogue (review)
    Dialogue 48 (4): 895-898. 2009.
  •  10
    A Socio-Linguistic Approach to the Development of Folk Psychology One of the most interesting issues central to folk psychology is how it develops in humans. Over the past few decades, two distinct theories have emerged known as the Theory-Theory and Simulation Theory. Theory-theory supporters argue that children construct theories to explain behavior, while simulation theorists extol the virtues of empathy—putting yourself in another person's shoes. I argue that each position falls short of an …Read more
  •  18
    Social responsibility: concepts and normative ethics
    International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy 6 (4): 242. 2012.
  •  213
    Why Folk Psychology Is Not Universal
    Facta Philosophica 9 (1): 55-78. 2007.
  •  23
    Rationalism and a Vygotskian Alternative to Business Ethics Education
    Journal of Business Ethics Education 10 231-260. 2013.
    Studies have shown ethics education has not systematically improved the moral reasoning of business students and professionals and, therefore, its effectiveness should be seen as deeply questionable. Business ethics education has limited effect, in part, because it rests on rationalistic traditions within normative ethics, business theory, and cognitive psychology. Emphasis is usually placed on student’s rationally thinking about issues as a way of improving their critical analysis and reasoning…Read more
  •  32