PHI-10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Generic Point, Dignity, Business Ethics
Document Summary
- people have lacks, needs that are addressed. -connection to happiness: specific problems: (i) cases where the desires themselves are bad or problematic. -child pornography, human trafficking (ii) cases where desires may be ok, but satisfaction often involves irrationally or harm to long-term interests. -tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuels (iii) cases where desires are satisfied, and there is goodness, but the desire-satisfaction is not what explains the goodness. -higher education, medical care. (iv) satisfaction and corporate responsibility case like (i )-(iii) show that there are limits on what stakeholder satisfaction can justify: assault rifles are profitable, and people want them may nor dually justify selling them. The stakeholders are satisfied does not always = the decision is justified. Goodpaster concludes: we must add comprehensive moral thinking. Give people what they want! is not always sound ethical advice. Some decisions will (1) produce lots of stakeholder satisfaction, but (2) still raise ethics questions/problem.
