Rob Hughes @robhughes@scholar.social

Hello! I teach normative business #ethics at the #Wharton School. My main research questions:

1) Ethical limits on law enforcement. Should all good laws be enforced? Should all important criminal laws be enforced with prison?

2) Economic civil disobedience and the ethics of obeying the law. When, if ever, is it OK to treat fines as a cost of doing business?

3) Transactional justice. Consent is not always enough to make an economic transaction ethical. What else is needed?

#introductions

Suppose that the state provides universal health insurance. Should the state allow people to buy access to expensive medical treatments that the universal insurance plan doesn't cover?

In this podcast and transcript, I argue that the answer is no, at least where genuinely necessary treatments are concerned.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/equal-health-care-for-all/

"Egalitarian Provision of Necessary Medical Treatment," The Journal of Ethics

To prevent citizens from being subject to objectionable forms of private power, government should prevent citizens’ finances from affecting their access to medical treatments they genuinely need. Government should do this even if doing so would involve leveling down.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10892-019-09309-y

Accepted manuscript: https://robertchughes.com/med-egal-AAM.pdf

When a business has competitors that break a burdensome law, is it morally required to obey this law, or may it break the law to avoid an unfair competitive disadvantage?

Law and Philosophy 38 (2019): 169–193. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-019-09345-7

Accepted manuscript available here: https://www.robertchughes.com/competition-and-lawbreaking-AAM.pdf

#businessethics #philosophy #politicalobligation #obeyingthelaw

"Corporations and Justice": new article in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, co-authored with Alan Strudler

https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/corporations-and-justice/v-1

#corporations #businessethics

Podcast and transcript on the ethics of workplace safety:

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/dangerous-jobs-ethics/

"Paying People to Risk Life or Limb," forthcoming in Business Ethics Quarterly.

Drawing on Kantian ethical theory, this paper defends two claims. First, the content of a hazardous job affects the moral permissibility of offering it. Second, employers typically cannot justify omitting expensive safety measures by paying employees more, even if employees prefer higher pay to greater safety.

Accepted manuscript: https://robertchughes.com/hazard-pay-accepted-manuscript-prepub.pdf

#businessethics

My 2010 dissertation "Governing the Good" in 17 syllables:

Immanuel Kant
thought law must be coercive.
He was incorrect.

#dissertationhaiku

Several colleagues and I discuss the Red Hen controversy here:

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/should-businesses-turn-away-customers-over-political-differences/

James Angel: "The SEC is sending a very strong signal: Don’t lie to investors."

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/lessons-from-theranos/

@pzmyers wrote, "It would also be so sweet if they [business schools] actually forced their graduates to learn some ethics."

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2018/02/26/with-all-due-respect-why-dont-we-get-rid-of-business-schools/

Wharton has a responsibility and social values requirement for all of its undergraduate and MBA students.

For incoming and future undergrads, the requirement is either Ethics and Social Responsibility or Law and Social Values. MBAs take either Responsibility in Global Management or Responsibility in Business.

A conversation on Wharton Business Radio about businesses' response to the Parkland shootings. With my colleagues Eric Orts and Brian Berkey.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/ethical-debate-guns/

Hello! I teach normative business #ethics at the #Wharton School. My main research questions:

1) Ethical limits on law enforcement. Should all good laws be enforced? Should all important criminal laws be enforced with prison?

2) Economic civil disobedience and the ethics of obeying the law. When, if ever, is it OK to treat fines as a cost of doing business?

3) Transactional justice. Consent is not always enough to make an economic transaction ethical. What else is needed?

#introductions