The Ethics of Trade: A Prequel to the Study of Business Ethics

• Main Author: San Angelo, Dominick III
• Language: en
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/271942

"Business Ethics" is a subject that is unavoidably interdisciplinary. Certainly, the two Words - when treated as separate matters - are most often studied by academics in different fields: the former typically by those in business colleges (no surprise there), and the latter by philosophers. My thesis examines the way in which there seems to be a tension between how those in each respective discipline view the practice of combining business and ethics in an academic context. It then attempts to find the starting point for thinking about the foundation of business ethics. In essence, I argue for where I think the general conversation surrounding business ethics ought to begin. My argument is that an understanding of the fundamental reasons we trade is a crucial and prerequisite lens through which business ethics should be viewed. Determining moral prescriptions appropriately for businesses and agents interacting with businesses requires accounting for that which business, as an institution, is derived from. My thesis explains why I find this to be the case.