Corporate Roles, Personal Virtues: An Aristotelean Approach to Business Author(s): Robert C. Solomon Source: Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Jul., 1992), pp. 317-339 Published by: Documentation Center Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3857536 . Accessed: 10/01/2015 14:57

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This content downloaded from 129.62.12.156 on Sat, 10 Jan 2015 14:57:20 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CORPORATEROLES, PERSONAL VIRTUES: AN ARISTOTELEANAPPROACH TO BUSINESSETHICS

RobertC. Solomon

Eachof us is ultimatelylonely, In the end,it's up to eachof us andeach of us alone to figureout who we areand who we arenot, andto act moreor less consistentlyon thoseconclusions. TomPetets, "The Ethical Debate" Ethics Digest Dec 1989,p. 2.

5,5 tE are gratefullypast thatembarrassing period when the very title of t t a lectureon "businessethics" invited- no, required-those malapert responses,"sounds like an oxymoron"or "mustbe a very short lecture." Today,business ethics is well-establishednot only in the standardcurricu- lum in philosophyin most departmentsbut, moreimpressively, it is recom- mended or requiredin most of the leading business schools in North America,and it is even catchingon in Europe(one of the too rareinstances of intellectualcommerce in thatdirection). Studies in businessethics have now reachedwhat Tom Donaldson has called '4thethird wave," beyond the hurried-togetherand overly-philosophicalintroductory textbooks and col- lectionsof too-obviousconcrete case studies,too seriousengagement in the businessworld. Conferencesfilled half-and-halfwith businessexecutives andacademics are common, and in-depth studies based on immersionin the corporateworld, e.g. RobertJackall's powerful Moral Mazes, havereplaced more simple-mindedand detachedglosses on ""and "socialre- sponsibility."Business ethics has moved beyond vulgar "business as poker" argumentsto an arenawhere serious ethical theory is no longerout-of-place but seriouslysought out andmuch in demand. The problemwith businessethics now is not vulgarignorance but a far more sophisticatedconfusion concerning exactly what the subjectis sup- posed to do and how (to employa much overworkedcontrast) the theory appliesto the practiceof business.Indeed, a largepart of the problemis that it is by no meansclear what a theoryin businessethics is supposedto look like or whetherthere is, as such,any suchtheoretical enterprise. It has been standardpractice in many businessethics coursesand whethercause or effect most standardtextbooks, to begin with a surveyof ethicaltheory. This means,inevitably, a briefsummary of Kantand deontological ethics, a brief surveyof utilitarianismwith a note or two aboutJohn Stuart Mill and a distinctionor two betweenact and rule, pleasureversus preference utili- tarianismand some replayof the much-rehearsedcontest between the two g31992.Business Ethics Quarterly,Volume 2, Issue 3. ISSN 1052-150X. 0317-0339.

This content downloaded from 129.62.12.156 on Sat, 10 Jan 2015 14:57:20 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions QUARTERLY 318 BUSINESSETHICS

the businesscontext, libertarianism or some formof sortsof theories Given natural is often includedas a thirdcontender. "Justice'9 i