Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Philosophy and ethics for University

Lewis Carroll: Life and Background

a) This excerpt belongs to the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:

• It was written by Lewis Carroll, and this book was published in the year 1865.
• He was the inventor of the nonsense genre. He was born in Daresbury, England, in 1832.
• Educated at Rugby and at Christ Church College, University of Oxford, he became a member of the faculty of mathematics at Oxford.
• Lewis Carroll, the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was an English logician, mathematician, and novelist.
• The author's life and work has become a constant area for speculation, and his study of the boundaries of sense and nonsense has inspired a number of psychological studies and novels.
• He died in 1898.

Alice's Adventures in Victorian Context

b)

A Landmark

The Four Freedoms of the European Union

The European Union establishes a common customs tariff in relations with third states and prohibits quantitative restrictions on imports or exports between member states.

Free Movement of Persons

The free movement of persons is divided into two core concepts regarding economic activity:

• Free Movement of Workers: The right to work as an employee in another member state.
• Freedom of Establishment: The right to open your own business or provide services independently.

This principle allows nationals of a member state to move to another to undertake economic activity. This involves two types of measures:

1. Right of Movement and Residence: Removing barriers to the entry, stay, and departure of nationals.
2. Equal Access:

The Formal Definition of Fundamental Rights

The formal definition of fundamental rights is sufficient to identify the basic principles of legal equality. Indeed, thanks to the universality expressed by the universal quantification of types of individuals who are holders of such rights, these rights are configured as a structural feature. As we will see, they consist of inalienable and unavailable substantial interests. In the historical experience of constitutionalism, such interests coincide with liberties and other essential needs—won at the cost of struggles and revolutions—pertaining to the life, survival, equality, and dignity of human beings.

The Guarantee of Universal Constitutional Rights

This guarantee is realized precisely through...

Moral Development Concepts

Your Guess. 1. Moral Dumbfounding

2. Nativism

Instinctive, evolutionary history with a strong genetic base.

3. Empiricism

Morality learned during childhood.

4. Epigenetics

How the environment regulates particular genes in an individual’s lifetime. For example, twins raised in the same conditions are not perfectly correlated in either physiological or psychological measures (Plomin, 1994). This suggests that a genes + environment model is insufficient to explain the origin of morality, potentially pointing toward molecular chance.

5. Piaget: Rationalism

Morality in children is self-constructed through their interactions with others. Example: volume of a glass of water.

6. Kohlberg's Stages

Stages of moral development based...

Business Classification

By Ownership of Property or Capital

This classification focuses on the nature of the owners, whether public or private actors:

• Public Company: Capital and control belong to the public sector, where public and social economy criteria prevail.
• Private Enterprise: The capital belongs to an individual or group of individuals.
• Mixed Company: A portion of the capital belongs to public institutions.

By Sector of Activity

• Primary Sector: Companies engaged in activities related to natural resources.
• Secondary Sector: Businesses that transform assets through a production process.
• Tertiary Sector: Commercial enterprises and service providers.

By Geographical Area of Operation

• Local Businesses: Operating within a single town.
• Regional Businesses:

Defining Expression Types in the Gricean Program

Explain the definitions provided regarding the meaning of expression types within the perspective of the Gricean program. Note that these definitions rely on the feature of self-preservation through conventional regularities.

The Nature of Conventional Regularity

A conventional regularity in a community is considered conventional because alternative regularities could exist that would meet the same common interests. The members of the community did not act according to these regularities before they existed; therefore, the regularity was not originally conventional. What led them to continue this regularity was the certainty of achieving their goals.

Conditions for Conventionality

The self-preservation...

Legal System and Standards

Natural Law Defined

In any society, coexistence necessitates order; without it, life is impossible. Natural law refers to a set of rules that embody the ideal of justice (the "duty to be").

Positive Law: Governing Principles

Unlike natural law, positive law refers to a set of standards that are not left to the free will of individuals but are imposed coercively. A right is considered positive because it governs at a particular time, meaning it is currently in force. For example, the Civil Code of 1889 is considered positive law because it remains in effect.

Theoretically, positive law should be guided by natural law, developing its principles while considering the specific circumstances of time and place. The correlation...

Understanding Leasing Contracts

A lease is a contract whereby one person (Lessor or Landlord) or company transfers to another person (Lessee or Tenant) the right to use a physical asset in exchange for compensation, usually a periodic payment. After a specified time, the lessee has the option to purchase the property, renew the lease, or return the property.

Financial Leasing

A financial lease is characterized by the following criteria:

• a) Ownership is transferred to the lessee by the end of the contract.
• b) The purchase option amount at the end of the contract is significantly below the market value of the goods at that time.
• c) The present value of lease payments represents a significant proportion of the market value of the asset at the beginning

Stakeholder View Complexity

What do you think?

Stakeholder view is more complex. “Business ethics must clarify the notion of a legitimate interest in a company and the related notion of a justified stake in it. We must ask, then, what ethical responsibilities managers have, to whom and to what strength. The idea of multiple constituencies helps us focus on this question, but there remains much to say to clarify it.” (Audi, page 29).

Case Studies on Business Constituencies

On Monday, we are going to view a PBS Frontline documentary, “Life and Death in Assisted Living Care” (2013). The focus of the documentary is a Seattle-based chain of assisted living care centers called Emeritus. [BTW: “Emeritus” is a Latin term which, applied to a...

Professional Ethics: To What and to Whom?

A professional’s ethical responsibility is to what and to whom? Physicians follow the Hippocratic oath to “do no harm.” Journalists are compelled by their profession to follow the ideal to be “honest, fair, and courageous” in “gathering, reporting, and interpreting information.” What about educators or accountants? Accountants are called upon to “be objective, avoid conflicts of interest, and to report clearly and accurately.” The ethical code of teachers instructs them not to indoctrinate.

The Journalist's Perspective

I am quoting Weston and also calling upon my own life experience in covering this topic in more detail. I would be happy to give equal time to physicians and accountants,...