Abstract
What follows is a brief description of the origin and development, results, and future plans of the “Gadfly Business Ethics Project” at Bentley College.
Viewing himself as selected by the god to be a gadfly to sting the great and noble but sluggish horse, the city of Athens, Socrates says:
I never cease to rouse everyone of you, to persuade and reproach you all day long and everywhere I find myself in your company.Apology, 30e
To paraphrase Webster, a Socratic “gadfly” is a person who, through the analysis and defense of ideas, intentionally stimulates others by his or her persistence. A business ethics gadfly then, in the context of our Gadfly Project, is a catalyst who motivates and strengthens an ethics dimension in functional business courses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
M. Francis Reeves is professor philosophy at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is author of an introductory textbook in philosophy and of several articles on business ethics. He is the Socratic gadfly or catalyst at Bentley for assisting undergraduate and graduate business professors in integrating ethics into their functional courses. He was recently a gadfly to business departments at the Ateneo University of Manila in the Philippines.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reeves, M.F. The gadfly business ethics project. J Bus Ethics 13, 609–614 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00871808
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00871808