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Socrates Comes to Wall Street, 1st edition

Published by Pearson (January 13, 2015) © 2016

  • Thomas I. White Loyala Marymount University
$111.99

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For courses in Business Ethics
A fresh approach to the assumptions that underlie business practices
Two recent events – the 2008 economic meltdown and the ongoing concentration of the nation’s wealth in the hands of a very small percentage of the population – have led many people to question a number of basic assumptions about business, corporations, and the workings of contemporary free-market capitalism in a global economy. Written as a dialogue between Socrates and a hypothetical contemporary CEO, Socrates Comes to Wall Street leads students to think critically about perspectives and practices that are taken as “givens” in most American business schools and corporations. Employing this original and provocative approach, author Thomas White seeks to encourage the next generation of business leaders to be more astute about the implications of their actions, and to act more prudently and more fairly than we have seen in the recent past.
Throughout Socrates Comes to Wall Street, author Thomas White challenges beliefs that are considered “common coin” in the United States, and are rarely questioned in business schools and corporations. Some of the assumptions examined are as follows:
• The purpose of a business is to generate maximum profit for shareholders.
• Wealth generated by business will “trickle down” throughout the rest of the economy to everyone’s benefit. That is, “a rising tide floats all boats.”• Contemporary free-market capitalism invariably promotes maximum individual freedom.
• CEO compensation in the range of hundreds of times more than that of average employees is ethically appropriate.• Corporations have very limited responsibility for any harm their actions may bring to people now or in the future.
• It is ethically acceptable for businesses to keep their tax bill as small as possible, even if it means they pay no taxes at all.• Ethics is a largely subjective, even arbitrary matter, rather than a technically sophisticated way to describe actions, their consequences, and assess risk.
• A rigorous and sophisticated ethical analysis need not be part of decision making in business. Abiding by the law — and consulting mission statements, lists of corporate values, and one’s corporate ethics office — are more than enough to guarantee that a company’s actions are ethical.
By applying Socratic reasoning to these core assumptions about business practices in our economy, White prompts students to ask themselves whether ideas that they’re absolutely certain are true are, in fact, backed up by facts and logic. And this critical perspective can help the business leader of the future avoid the economic mistakes that have made headlines recently.
1. Socrates Arrives
2. What Is the “Job” of Business?
3. What Is the “Job” of Business? (continued)
4. Has the CEO Done Anything “Wrong”?
5. Has the CEO Done Anything “Wrong”? (continued)
6. Has the CEO Done Anything “Wrong”? (continued)
7. Ethics on the Job
8. Socrates Returns – The Second Conversation
9. “Ethics Is Rubbish!”
10. “Ethics Is Rubbish!” (continued)
11. Is There an Objective Foundation to Ethics?
12. Is There an Objective Foundation to Ethics? (continued)
13. Business, Ethics, Apple/Proview, and John Stuart Mill
14. Business, Ethics, Apple/Proview, and Immanuel Kant
15. Business, Ethics, Apple/Proview, and Immanuel Kant (continued)
16. Corporate Responsibility – The Gun Company
17. Corporate Responsibility – The Gun Company (continued)
18. Corporate Responsibility and “Return on Infrastructure” –  Caterpillar
19. Corporate Responsibility and “Return on Infrastructure” –  Caterpillar (continued)
20. Business, Ethics, and the Rights of Future Generations –  Climate Change
21. Business, Ethics, and the Rights of Future Generations –  Climate Change (continued)
22. Business, Ethics, and the Rights of Future Generations – The Economy
23. Business, Ethics, and the Rights of Future Generations – The Economy (continued)
24. Business, Ethics, and Ideology
25. Business, Ethics, and Ideology (continued)
26. Epilogue
Thomas I. White is the Conrad N. Hilton Professor in Business Ethics and Director of the Center for Ethics and Business at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has written six books and numerous articles on topics ranging from sixteenth-century Renaissance humanism to business ethics and environmental ethics.
Author of In Defense Of Dolphins: The New Moral Frontier, Professor White focuses on the ethical implications of the scientific research on cetaceans. He is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, a Scientific Advisor to the Wild Dolphin Project and served as U.S. Ambassador for the United Nations’ Year of the Dolphin program.

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