Self-study
P1
Many people complain about corporations, but there are also those whose criticism goes further and who hold corporations morally to blame for many of the problems in Western society. █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███
Some people's view ·
Corporations are immoral when they ignore their impacts on the public good
Economists' view ·
Shouldn't apply ethics to economics
P2
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Context ·
Corporate responsibility
Corporations aren't inherently moral/immoral. Instead, corporate responsibility is made up of employees' individual responsibilities.
Context ·
Corporate structure
CEO has obligation toward corporation's owners
P3
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Economists' view ·
One responsibility of CEO: maximize profits
Meets CEO's obligation to owners and also serves public good
P4
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Author's criticism ·
Economists are wrong
Premise ·
Maximizing profits doesn't always serve public good
E.g.: maximizing profits for paper mill can harm public good
Premise ·
Public good outweighs obligation to maximize profits
CEO should serve public good even when it's not in owners' interest
Passage Style
Critique or debate
17.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
Question Type
Main point
The main point of this Debate passage is to present and counter the position of some economists. The economists' view is that a CEO’s sole obligation is to protect the interests of a corporation’s owners. The author counters that while this obligation exists, CEOs have a greater moral responsibility to protect the public good.
a
Although CEOs may ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ █████
The author acknowledges the economists’ view that CEOs generally have an obligation to maximize profits, but adds that while this obligation exists, CEOs have a greater responsibility to protect the public good.
b
Although morality is ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ███ ████████
Two problems. First, the author never suggests that morality is “not easily ascribed” to nonhuman entities like corporations. He just notes that corporate responsibility is
c
Although economists argue ████ ██████████ █ █████████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ███████ █ █████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ███ ███ █████████████ ███████
Wrong viewpoint. This is all the economists' view. The author, meanwhile, disagrees that a CEO's highest obligation is to seek a profit for the corporation's owners.
d
Although some people █████████ ████████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████
This is just a summary of the first paragraph, and it ignores the author’s view, which is that the economists are wrong and corporations (and their CEOs) do have ethical responsibilities.
e
Although critics of ████████████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████
Anti-supported. The author