文档介绍：Business ethics and economics
In the next reading, Diane Swanson offers an interesting and provocative analysis of the tension that she sees between business ethicists and economists. Her argument is that the tension results from a clash of peting theories, rather than from different experiences with business.
As shown in several articles in this section, business ethicists take a duty-oriented or "deontological" perspective on business behaviour as opposed to a utilitarian (see Unit A4) perspective. So the fundamental question for business people is whether they are doing the right thing. That is, ethicists assume that the primary question to be asked in human affairs is: "What ought I to do?"
By contrast, neoclassical economists like Milton Friedman are focussed on economic efficiency in the market. They see an efficient market as a way of dealing with the scarcity of resources and the inherently unlimited demands of consumers. Their concern is not with what people ought to do but rather with matching supply and demand in a maximally effective way. It is then centred on gain or loss rather than duty or right.
So, Swanson argues that the economist assumes that gain for self is a given. peting selves with diverse wants, the market provides a way of maximising total well-being. The ethicist argues instead that justice, duties, and rights are the first consideration. Swans