Business Ethics (PHL 318)

Midterm Exam Study Guide

Summer CEL course, 2003, Dr. Robert Noggle

Although I am still putting the finishing touches on the exam, I anticipate having about 70 multiple choice questions, and about 4 questions requiring you to write a couple of sentences each.

My official policy is that everything that is discussed in class and everything that is part of the assigned readings is fair game unless I have told you otherwise. However, while I reserve the right to ask any questions that are fair game, I offer you the following advice about the kinds of things the exam will concentrate on.

1.  The main themes from "The Parable of the Sadhu" and Wall Street.

2.  The material discussed in the first few sessions of class, including the meaning of integrity, the potential financial costs of immoral actions or policies, etc.

3.  The various ideas of Robert Solomon about abstract greed and defective metaphors that were discussed in class.

4.  The main points made by Saul Gellerman in his article. I won’t as about the fine details of the three cases he discusses, but you should know the general outlines of what went wrong in each of the cases, and the results. You should also know the four rationalizations he discusses.

5.  The 12 Moral Principles. I will not ask you to list them from scratch, but you should you should recognize them when you see them, either stated in the abstract, or applied to a specific bit of moral reasoning. You should also have a general sense of how to determine the strength of each principle.

6.  Most of what I want you to know about moral theory I covered in class; however, I am likely to ask a question or two about the main points of the reading from Shaw on utilitarianism, Kant’s ethics, and Ross’s theory. You are also responsible for knowing the very basics about the 3 moral philosophers discussed in this class (Kant, Ross, and Mill). I am unlikely to ask any thing about them that is more detailed that what is summarized on the 12 Principles handout. (Aristotle is mentioned on the handout; I won’t ask anything about him.)

7.  The main features of the four main economic systems

8.  The moral implications of the tendency for price and output to move to the equilibrium in a perfectly competitive market.

9.  The various drawbacks of laissez faire capitalism. You should understand why our society has moved away from laissez faire capitalism and embraced the mixed economy (moderate/regulated/welfare state capitalism). I might ask a question or two over the material on the justifications and criticisms of capitalism discussed in Shaw’s text. At the minimum, you should understand the basics of Adam Smith’s idea of the invisible hand and Marx’s idea of exploitation. (I will talk a bit about Marx’s notion of alienation later in the course, and will not ask you about it on the midterm.)

10.  The various forms of anti-competitive practices. You should know their definitions and be able to recognize instances of them. You should also understand the reasons why they are considered unethical. While I will expect you to be familiar with the basics of the laws governing these practices, I will not ask you detailed legal questions about the letter of the law, though I will expect you to be familiar with the spirit of the laws.

11.  The main theories of corporate social responsibility and the arguments for and against them.. You should know the main points contained in the article by Milton Friedman and by R. Edward Freeman. (We will discuss this on Friday evening, but be sure you have read the articles before coming to class. You should also know the importance of the notions of the fiduciary (or "promissory") relationship and limited liability in the context of this debate. In class, I will distinguish between strong and moderate versions of the stakeholder ("broader") view of corporate social responsibility. You’ll need to know this distinction.

My goal on the exam is to make sure that you have a good grasp of all of the material. I try to write questions that will be easy to get right if you have read, understood, and studied what you are supposed to, and impossible to get right if you have not. Thus, the question will not be designed to trick you, but they will be designed to test you. Notice that while very little of this material is all that difficult to understand, there is quite a lot of it to remember.