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Slovak University of Technology
Faculty of Material Science and Technology in Trnava
Manager ethics
A History of Business Ethics
Contents:
Greek Moral Philosophy
 Hellenistic and Roman Ethics
 Early Christian and Ethics Reformation
ethics
 Modern ethics
 Business Ethics as an Academic Field
 Business Ethics as a Movement

Greek Moral Philosophy

Socrates (469-399 BC)

on the area of VALUES

Aristotle ( 384-322 BC)

Nicomachean Ethics
Hellenistic and Roman Ethics

Epicureanism taught that all humans by
nature seek a pleasant life and that the
best way to the pleasant life is through a
life of moderate satisfaction.
Hellenistic and Roman Ethics

Stoicism taught that "the world is
independent of our will" and consequently
that a life detached from the natural events
of life will be calmer and less troubled than
a life bound up with false desires for
worldly things.
Early Christian and Ethics
Reformation ethics

Thomas Aquinas's
Martin Luther
 Jean Calvin, and John Wesley

Modern ethics

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations (1776)

Modern ethics

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

categorical imperative
Three formulations of the
Categorical Imperative.



"Act only according to that maxim by which you
can at the same time will that it should become a
universal law."
"Act as though the maxim of your action were by
your will to become a universal law of nature."
Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your
own person or in that of another, always as an
end and never as a means only."
Modern ethics

Max Weber (1864-1920)

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Business Ethics as an Academic
Field
Norman Bowie
 first conference in business ethics, which
was held at the University of Kansas, and
which resulted in the first anthology used
in the new courses that started popping up
thereafter in business ethics

Business Ethics as an Academic
Field
Thomas Donaldson's
 The Ethics of Business Ethics (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1989) was the
first systematic treatment of international
business ethics

Business Ethics as an Academic
Field

Tom Beauchamp and Norman Bowie

Ethical Theory and Business

Richard De George

Business Ethics

John Rawls

A Theory of Justice
Business Ethics as a Movement
Johnson & Johnson's
 well-known Credo was written and
published by General Robert Wood
Johnson in 1943

General Motors

In 1978 General Motors and a group of
other U. S. companies adopted what are
known as the Sullivan Principles, which
governed their actions in South Africa.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The most recent legislative incentive to
incorporate ethics in the corporation came
in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Thank you for your attention!
Questions?