In this series of video lectures, Professor Hicks discusses classic cases in business ethics. No formal knowledge of business ethics is presupposed. The course lectures are below, including links to recommended readings and playlists at YouTube.
Introduction:
Introduction to case study methodology.
* View the entire lecture at YouTube. 17 minutes total.
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The Tragedy of the Commons:
1. What the tragedy is.
2. The free-market solution.
3. The socialist solution.
4. Comparing the two solutions.
* View the entire lecture at YouTube. 43 minutes total.
* Reading: Garrett Hardin on “The Tragedy of the Commons” (at the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics).
* Supplemental: Summary flowchart of the arguments.
* Transcript of the above video lecture online [html] [pdf].
* Video: Elinor Ostrom on “Ending the Tragedy of the Commons.” The Nobel-prize winning economist explains how, with proper governance, humans are capable of finding peaceful solutions to the problem of resource scarcity.
Rent Control:
1. Introduction: the standard buyer/seller relationship.
2. The argument for rent control.
3. The argument against rent control.
4. Comparing the arguments for and against rent control.
5. Rent control: politics.
* View the entire lecture at YouTube. 55 minutes total.
* Reading: Walter Block on “Rent Control” (at the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics).
* Supplemental: Summary flowchart of the arguments.
Minimum Wages:
1. The standard employer/employee relationship.
2. The argument for minimum wages.
3. Contrasting the initial arguments’ claims about economics, ethics, and politics.
4. The economic argument against minimum wages.
5. Minimum wages: ethics and politics.
* View the entire lecture at YouTube. 53 minutes total.
* Reading: Linda Gorman on “Minimum Wages” (at the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics).
* Supplemental: Summary flowchart of the arguments for and against minimum wages. European country data on the minimum wage.
Experimental Cancer Drugs — Laetrile:
1. Context and defining the issue.
2. The argument for legalizing Laetrile.
3. The argument for banning Laetrile.
4. Comparing the arguments for and against Laetrile.
* View the entire video-lecture at YouTube. 65 minutes tota).
* Reading: Tom Beauchamp, “Manufacture and Regulation of Laetrile” [pdf].
* Supplemental: Summary: Identifying the issue and parties involved and
Summary: flowchart of the pro and con arguments.
Telecommunications: The FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine”:
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 the medium matters, scarcity, unintended consequences, and abuses of power.
* View the entire lecture at YouTube. 70 minutes total.
* Reading: Tom Beauchamp on “The FCC’s ‘Fairness Doctrine'” [pdf].
* Supplement: Summary flowchart of the arguments pro and con [jpg].
Conclusion:
1. Summary abstraction: comparing the cases.
* View the entire lecture at YouTube. 15 minutes total.
* Supplement: Summary chart of cases and principles.
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The lectures were recorded during the 2012-2013 academic year.
Go to the Business Ethics Cases playlists at YouTube.
Go to the Philosophy of Education lecture series.
Go to the StephenHicks.org main page.