Business Ethics

Kindle and audio versions: “What Business Ethics Can Learn from Entrepreneurship”

3 Comments / Business Ethics, Entrepreneurship /

My essay is available at Amazon in Kindle e-book format. It was for awhile on the Social Science Research Network’s “Top Ten” list of papers in the Entrepreneurship Research & Policy Network. It has also been translated into Serbo-Croatian translation. Abstract: “Entrepreneurship is increasingly studied as a fundamental and foundational economic phenomenon. It has, however, […]

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Tragedy of the Commons — transcript of video lecture [Classic Business Ethics Cases series]

2 Comments / Business Ethics, Economics, Politics /

Below is the transcript. Or here in PDF. The lecture is part of the Business Ethics Cases series. The Tragedy of the Commons (transcript) Video lecture by Stephen Hicks, Ph.D. Transcription by Matheus Pacini. Part 1: What the Tragedy Is [Video clip 1] The Tragedy of the Commons is a foundational case study in business

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*Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics* — e-book version

1 Comment / Business Ethics /

My essay on “Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics” is available in e-book format. The essay has gotten very good mileage, so to speak, since being first published in The Journal of Accounting, Ethics & Public Policy. It has been translated into German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Korean, and in English it is available at the

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Toohey’s five strategies of altruism

11 Comments / Business Ethics, Ethics, Objectivism, Philosophy, Politics /

The ethics of altruism [from the Latin, alter-ism or other-ism] holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of others first, acts to achieve their interests, and, when necessary, sacrifices one’s interests for their sake. In The Fountainhead, Ellsworth Toohey is the major strategist of

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Telecommunications — the FCC’s ‘Fairness Doctrine’ [Business Ethics Cases series]

1 Comment / Business Ethics /

My video lecture on the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial “Fairness Doctrine,” part of the Business Ethics Cases series. Contents:1. The early days of radio and a tragedy of the commons.2. What is fairness? Two competing answers.3. The argument for the “Fairness Doctrine.”4. The argument against the “Fairness Doctrine.”5. Related issues: whether politics is special, whether

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The Mongols and modern European history

4 Comments / Business Ethics, Film, History, Literature, Philosophy of History /

Did the death of one man in Mongolia affect the entire course of European history since the 1200s? Here’s the context: In 1227, Genghis Khan’s son Ogedai became head of the Mongolian empire, which at that time included much of northern China, southeastern Russia, and Persia. Ogedai sent one of his generals, Tsubodai (or Subotai),

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