Self-study
Most business ethics courses and textbooks confine themselves to considering specific cases and principles. ███ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████████████ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ █ █████████ ███ █████████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████ ███████
Summary
Abstract ethical theory should be added to business ethics curricula, which currently only include specific cases and principles. This is because the current approach offers no framework to help students understand those specific principles.
Notable Assumptions
The argument establishes that business ethics curricula lack a framework to understand specific principles, and then jumps to the conclusion that abstract ethical theory should be added in. This indicates an assumption that abstract ethical theory will resolve the issue by providing an appropriate framework.
We need to affirm this assumption that adding abstract ethical theory to business curricula will better enable students to understand specific principles.
16.
Which one of the following, ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████
a
A moralizing approach ████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ██ █████████████
This isn’t applicable to the argument, which never mentions any kind of “moralizing approach that fails to recognize the diversity of ethical rules in use.”
b
Courses that concentrate ██████ ██ ████████████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ █████ █████████
This is irrelevant—the argument isn’t trying to establish that courses mostly involving role-playing are undesirable, just that we should also include abstract ethical theory.
c
People have no ██████████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████
The argument isn’t at all concerned with whether people have an obligation to always behave ethically, so this isn’t relevant.
d
Abstract ethical theory ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ █████████████ ████████ ███████████
In other words, abstract ethical theory is the best option to provide that missing framework to understand specific principles. This affirms the assumption in the argument and justifies the conclusion, by providing a reason why abstract ethical theory should be added in.
e
An ethics course ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ █ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ █████████████
This is irrelevant, because the conclusion isn’t about providing students with many specific principles and applications. It’s about providing a framework to understand those principles, which isn’t mentioned here at all.