The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics

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Part II

Moral philosophy and business

Foundational theories

Introduction

One of the main branches of philosophical enquiry, moral philosophy studies ethical conduct from both a theoretical and applied perspective. Since business ethics is a prominent area of applied moral philosophy, it is imperative to understand the theoretical background behind an ethics of business. The chapters in Part II present and examine the foundational theories that historically comprise the subject area of moral philosophy. The distinct kinds of moral theorizing, or schools of ethics, include consequentialism, non-consequentialism, contractarianism, virtue theory, and, most recently, feminism. The discussions in this Part reveal how business ethics has drawn ...