Abstract
America's economic ideology lacks a vocabulary of ethics. If, as we assume, an economic system requires a moral component for long-term survival, students in business schools must be exposed to a vocabulary of ethics that is consistent with the ideology of capitalism. We present a vocabulary of ethics and describe an approach to teaching business ethics based on business-related classic literature and moral philosophy.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Aristotle: 1962/325 B.C., Nicomachean Ethics, Macmillan/Library of Liberal Arts, New York.
Benedict, R.: 1946, Patterns of Culture, Pelican, New York.
Bentham, J.: 1948/1789, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Hafner, New York.
Brinton, C.: 1963, The Story of Western Thought, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Coles, R.: 1989, The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston.
Collins, D.: 1988, 'Adam Smith's Social Contract: The Proper Role of Individual Liberty and Government Intervention in 18th Century Society', Business & Professional Ethics Journal 7, 119–146.
deVries, P. H.: 1989, 'Adam Smith's “Theory” of Justice: Business Ethics Themes in The Wealth of Nations', Business & Professional Ethics Journal 8, 37–55.
Dooley, P.: 1980, 'Nineteenth Century Business Ethics and The Rise of Silas Lapham', American Studies 21, 79–93.
Durkheim, E.: 1964/1893, The Division of Labor in Society, The Free Press, New York.
Durrenmatt, F.: 1962/1956, The Visit, Grove Weidenfeld, New York.
Fitzgerald, F. S.: 1980/1925, The Great Gatsby, MacMillan, New York.
Four Plays by Aristophanes: 1984/423 B.C., Translated by W. Arrowsmith, R. Lattimore, and D. Parker, Meridian Classic Printing, New York.
Friedman, M.: 1970, 'The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits', New York Times, September 3, 122–126.
Friedman, M.: 1971, 'Does Business Have a Social Responsibility', Bank Administration 47, 13–14.
Friedman, M.: 1982, Capitalism and Freedom, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Guthrie, W. K. G.: 1971, The Sophists, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.
Hobbes, T.: 1968/1651, Leviathan, Edited by C. B. Macpherson, Penguin Books, New York.
Hume, D.: 1967/1738, A Treatise of Human Nature, Edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge, Oxford University Press, London.
Hunt, M.: 1990, The Compassionate Beast, Anchor Books, New York.
Ibsen, H.: 1979/1950, An Enemy of the People, Penguin, New York.
Kant, I.: 1981/1785, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Translated by J. W. Ellington, Hackett, Indianapolis.
Kennedy, E. J. and Lawton, L.: 1992, 'Business Ethics in Fiction,' Journal of Business Ethics 11, 187–195.
Kuhn, T. S.: 1970, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Ladd, J. (ed.): 1973, Ethical Relativism, Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Leavitt, H. J.: 1989, 'WhatWeHaven't Taught ourMBAs', California Management Review Spring, 38–50.
Lewis, S.: 1950/1922, Babbitt, New American Library, New York.
Machiavelli, N.: 1981/1532, The Prince, Translated by G. Bull, Penguin Books, New York.
Locke, J.: 1947/1690, The Second Treatise of Government, Hackett, Indianapolis.
MacIntyre, A.: 1966, A Short History of Ethics, Collier Books, New York.
MacIntyre, A.: 1967, 'Egoism and Altruism', in P. Edwards (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan and Free Press, New York, vol. 2, pp. 462–466.
Mandeville, B.: 1989/1724, The Fable of the Bees, Penguin Books, New York.
McAdams, T. and R. Koppensteiner: 1992, 'The Manager Seeking Virtue: Lessons from Literature', Journal of Business Ethics 11, 627–634.
McAdams, T.: 1993, 'The Great Gatsby as a Business Ethics Inquiry', Journal of Business Ethics 12, 653–660.
McLoughlin, M.: 1987, 'A Nation of Liars?', U.S. News and World Report February 23, 54–60.
Melville, H.: 1986/1924, Billy Budd, Penguin, New York.
Mill, J. S.: 1957/1861, Utilitarianism, Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis.
Miller, A.: 1949, Death of a Salesman, Penguin, New York.
Moore, G. E.: 1912, Ethics, Oxford University Press, London.
Olson, R. G.: 1965, The Morality of Self-Interest, Harcourt, New York.
Palmer, R. E.: 1986, 'Let's be Bullish on Ethics', New York Times June 20, 23.
Porter, L. W. and L. E. McKibbin: 1988, Management Education and Development, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Rachels, J.: 1993, The Elements of Moral Philosophy 2nd Ed, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Redfield, R.: 1941, The Folk Culture of Yucatan, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Shad, J. S. R.: 1987, 'Business's Bottom Line: Ethics', New York Times July 27, 19.
Shapiro, W.: 1987, 'What's Wrong', Time May 25, 14–17.
Shepard, J. M. et al.: 1991, 'The Problem of Business Ethics: Oxymoron or Inadequate Vocabulary?', Journal of Business and Psychology 6, 9–23.
Shepard, J. M. et al.: 1995, 'The Place of Ethics in Business: Shifting Paradigms?', Business Ethics Quarterly 5, 577–601.
Slote, Michael: 1964, 'An Empirical Basis for Psychological Egoism', Journal of Philosophy 61, 530–537.
Solomon, R. C.: 1992, Ethics and Excellence, Oxford University Press, New York.
Stevenson, C. L.: 1944, Ethics and Language, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Stone, I. F.: 1988, The Trial of Socrates, Little, Brown and Company, Boston.
Sumner, W. G.: 1906, Folkways, Ginn and Company, Boston.
Tawney, T. H.: 1962/1926, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Harcourt, Brace, & Company, New York.
Thucydides: 1986/fifth century B.C., History of the Peloponnesian War, Penguin Books, New York.
Thurow, L. C.: 1984, Dangerous Currents, Vintage Books, New York.
Tonnies, F.: 1957/1887, Community and Society, Translated and Edited by C. P. Loomis, Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI.
Ward, R. J.: 1982, 'Business in the American Novel: The Fictional Treatment of theMarket Society', Bulletin of Bibliography 39, 195–200.
Werhane, P. H.: 1991, Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism, Oxford University Press, New York.
Wilson, J. Q.: 1993, The Moral Sense, Free Press, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shepard, J.M., Goldsby, M.G. & Gerde, V.W. Teaching Business Ethics Through Literature. Teaching Business Ethics 1, 33–51 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009795830349
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009795830349