PHL 264 Business and Professional Ethics
Essay Questions
Due date: 11th September
Length max: 1500 words
Worth: 40%
Choose a question from the list below.
Submission:
• Essays be submitted electronically to the Turn-it-in plagiarism protection system via ilearn. You are advised to check your access to this system in advance. • Your essay should be in 12-point font. Please number all pages, and put your name on on each page, and student number on the cover sheet. Please indicate clearly which question your essay is answering.
Extensions and late penalties:
• Extensions must be requested before the due date (unless exceptional circumstances prevent this) and all late essays must be accompanied by a medical certificate or similar documentation. Extensions without penalty will be granted only in exceptional circumstances, such as documented illness or accident. Work due in other subjects is not an exceptional circumstance. Late submission not covered by an approved extension will incur a penalty of 1 mark per day (including weekends).
Resources:
• Please read the Guidelines for Writing Philosophy Essays, and the Plagiarism
Policy, both of which can be found on the Philosophy Department website at:
<http://www.phil.mq.edu.au/undergraduate.htm>
also available on the Blackboard site for this course.
Please feel free to consult Melanie if you have questions about how to approach the essay
Important: For each question your essay must incorporate some critical, evaluative discussion of the relevant arguments presented in at least three resources including the relevant readings from the course. Research can be from other readings on the list, or from your own research. A critical evaluative discussion includes assessment of possible opposing viewpoints and objections, and requires you to state your own view clearly and to defend it using some of the theoretical resources (theories, analysis) we have discussed in class.
1) Discuss either Friedman or Carr’s narrow conception of business ethics. Compare this view with the stakeholder theory of business ethics. Which view do you find my plausible? Why?
2) Lippke argues that one way that advertising violates our autonomy is by reducing our capacity for critical thinking. Compare this with Arrington’s view that advertising doesn’t violate our autonomy. Which view do you find more convincing? Explain.
