The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics

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Theory and method in business ethics

Nicholas Capaldi

What is the relationship between actual business practice and business ethics theorizing? How can or should business ethicists contribute to our understanding of business? These questions, which have been addressed insufficiently by business ethicists, manifest the aim of this chapter: to identify, clarify, and resolve some major tensions in what business ethicists do or think they are doing. The mainstream of business ethics, along with a smaller counterculture, reflects deeper disputes both within philosophy and about the nature of philosophy. It is essential to probe these disputes and to consider the intellectual frameworks that have guided much of contemporary business ethics. ...