Spheres of Influence: A Walzerian Approach to Business Ethics
- PDF / 797,777 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 23 Downloads / 205 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Spheres of Influence: A Walzerian Approach to Business Ethics Andrew C. Wicks1 · Patricia H. Werhane2 · Heather Elms3 · John Nolan4 Received: 17 December 2019 / Accepted: 2 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Michael Walzer is one of the most distinguished political philosophers and social critics of this century. His ideas have had great import and influence in political philosophy and political discussion, yet very few of his ideas have been incorporated explicitly into the business ethics literature. We argue that Walzer’s work provides an important conceptual canvas for business ethics scholars that has not been adequately explored. Scholars in business ethics often borrow from political theory and philosophy to generate new insights and develop new substantive contributions. Many valuable theoretical resources are already used extensively—particularly Aristotle, Kant, Marx and a variety of utilitarian philosophers. Walzer offers another set of resources to bring to the conversation of what business ethics is and how business ethicists add value. This paper provides an opportunity to delve further into Walzer’s writings, particularly themes that are tied to business ethics, and to illustrate how his ideas can be extended to reshape our understanding of the field and develop new perspectives on ethical issues in commerce. Keywords Michael walzer · Political philosophy · Business ethics
Introduction Michael Walzer is one of the most important political philosophers and social critics of the twentieth century, yet his work has had limited explicit influence on conversations in business ethics. As a field that depends on conceptual resources from other disciplines to remain vibrant, in this paper we make the case that Walzer’s work provides critical insights and useful approaches that can enhance the efforts of those engaged in the project of business ethics. To make * Andrew C. Wicks [email protected] Patricia H. Werhane [email protected] Heather Elms [email protected] 1
The Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, 100 Darden Blvd, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
2
Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, Depaul University, 1 E Jackson Blvd – Suite 5300, Chicago, IL 60604, USA
3
The Kogod School of Business, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016, USA
4
The Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, 100 Darden Blvd, Charlottesville 22903, VA, USA
our case, we will show how Walzer’s ideas provide a distinctive perspective on the work of the business ethicist and craft a larger view of the field that demonstrates the value of Walzer’s ideas to business ethicists and other scholars of business. For Walzer, humans are situated beings. “Thick” understandings of their world (e.g. the meaning of particular goods, who I am as a person, what roles I play in my community) are the starting point for reflection as well as how we begin the process of doing ethics. Rather than focusing primarily on the complex and abstr
Data Loading...
