Business Ethics Chapter 2 Question & Answer

Ethical pluralism applies the points of view of all types of ethical theories to get a complete analysis of an ethical decision. Even though there is no universal recipe for making a final decision, ethical pluralism is not the same as ethical relativism.

Ethical theories are useful ways of summarizing and systematizing ethical reasons.

We can often explain cases of ethical disagreement between cultures as cases of different factual beliefs or as situations requiring a different balance between competing ethical considerations.

One weakness is that by making it too easy to agree to disagree, ethical relativism fails to do justice to the agreement-seeking aspect of ethical judgments. It encourages a sort of intellectual laziness that leads people not to allow members of other cultures to challenge their own moral views and not to respect their own moral principles.

People are attracted to the ethical relativism, the view that all judgments of right and wrong are relative to a person’s cultural membership, because they think that ethical relativism expresses toleration of cultural diversity.

Because ethical reasons guide our actions, they must not require that we perform actions that we are unable to do. Ethical reasons may be demanding, but not overly demanding.

Because ethical reasons are action-guiding and scientific beliefs are not, we cannot justify an ethical judgment based on purely scientific reasons. There is a logical gap between assertions of how the world is and assertions of how the world ought to be. An ethical judgment requires at least one ethical reason.

Like factual beliefs, but unlike preferences and desires, ethical reasons require justification and argument. Ethical reasons are both action-guiding and agreement-seeking.

Like preferences and desires, but unlike factual beliefs, ethical reasons motivate us to behave in certain ways. Ethical reasons are both action-guiding and agreement-seeking.

Generally, we consider not just one reason, but many reasons, when we make either strategic or ethical decisions.