Modified: April 27, 2005

Apart from the textbook discussions of these topics and the study questions that were created and placed on the course web site to help you focus on important issues in the textbook, I have placed on the web site several summary discussions of various topics related to the essays below: for instance, items H1-H4. Of course, the section of the web site on Ethical Theories contains materials that are relevant to the General Education assessment questions.

There will be a 35-point essay that will both be graded as part of the Final Exam and be used for Gen Education Assessment Purposes.

There will be a 25-point vocabulary section (in a matching format).

There will be a second essay section in which you will be asked to write two 20-point essays, one each from two groups. Most of these options will come the list below.

1. How can a case be made for employee rights in the areas, say, of due process and worker participation in plant management? How are businesses similar as politically structured entities to society as a whole? On the premise that familiar citizen rights should be valued in the larger society, as Rawls affirms, how might one reason that we should also defend employee rights within the business enterprise?

2. What are the basic characteristics of perfectly competitive markets that would enable them to achieve efficiency and respect negative rights? Explain. To what ethical perspectives that we have studied would this make PCMs attractive? Explain.

3. Critics of perfectly competitive markets could argue that they do not respect distributive justice in several senses of that phrase; that they do not fully maximize social utility; that they conflict with the demands of care ethics; and that they negatively impact moral character. Explain.

4. What is bribery? Why does Velasquez discuss bribery in the chapter that deals with perfectly competitive markets, oligopolies, etc.? What bad consequences (in terms of the utilitarian defense of free markets) might be argued to arise from it? In what ways does bribery create injustice? Violate contractual rights?

5. Compare two or three ethical approaches to pollution or depletion issues (one should be selected from: libertarian, preference utilitarian, Rawlsian liberalism; another should be selected from: hedonistic utilitarian, strict animal rights). Which approach is best for making sense out of the ethical challenge represented by plutonium?

6. Give at least two ethically based arguments, at least one of them nonanthropocentric, in defense of the proposition that humans should restrain their activities so that animal and plant species do not go extinct and ecological systems are not destroyed or degraded?

7. Describe the models of the organization discussed in class and in Velasquez's Chapter 8. These include the formal/rational, informal/political, and caring models of the organization. What is the dominant metaphor for each? The type of "rationality" associated with each? What are the human and moral problems or dangers associated with each? How does the civic model introduced in class differ from the formal and the political model? You may wish to review these notes on models of the organization.

Vocabulary

For more key terms associated with the normative ethical theories of chapter 2, see the Review for the Midterm.

moral virtue distributive justice (DJ) fundamental (formal) principle of DJ capitalist principle(s) of DJ socialist principle of DJ egalitarian principle of DJ perfectly competitive market external costs (externality) monopoly market oligopoly market price fixing price setting price leadership regulation view of oligopoly do-nothing view of oligopoly anti-trust view of oligopoly due process employment at will conflict of interest insider trading government-corporation analogy   (basis for employee rights) formal (rational) model of the organization informal (political)   model of the organization caring model of the organization civic or deliberative model of the organization political tactics fair wages (factors to   consider in determining)

job satisfaction (factors controlling) original position (Rawls) veil of ignorance (Rawls) rational choosers (in the original position) Principle of Equal Liberty Equal Opportunity clause of the   Second Principle of Justice (Rawls) pollution depletion strict (non-utilitarian) animal rights   perspective treatment of animals, hedonistic utilitarians on social costs approach to pollution anthropocentric (speciesist) perspective   on non-human nature environmental justice justice to future generations (Rawlsian view) land ethic (approach to   ecosystem preservation) discrimination sexual harassment quid pro quo sexual harassment hostile environment sexual harassment psychological egoism moral relativism universal ethical egoism moral subjectivism (normative) collective egoism