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
20.
The conception of morality that █████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
What makes actions ███████ █████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████
This principle aligns with the author’s argument: CEOs have a responsibility to act morally because their actions can potentially harm the public good. In making this argument, the author implies that the morality of an action rests on that action’s effects on the public good. (A) does a good job of expressing that connection.
b
An action is ███████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ████████
Unsupported. The author merely believes that morally right actions can
c
Actions are morally █████ ██ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████
Anti-supported. The
d
It is morally █████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ █████ ████████ ████████
Unsupported. The author talks about the obligation of CEOs to maximize profits for the owners of corporations, but he never raises the subject of maximizing “personal benefit” or what the moral implications of that would be.
e
Actions are not ███████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████
This confuses sufficient and necessary conditions. (E) says that harming others is necessary for an action to be morally wrong, whereas the author suggests that harming others is sufficient to be morally wrong. He never goes so far as to suggest that the only way an action can ever be morally wrong is if it harms others.