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?
Interview on just health care
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/
New publication on just health care
"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
New publication: "Breaking the Law Under Competitive Pressure"
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
Podcast and transcript on the ethics of workplace safety:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/dangerous-jobs-ethics/
New publication on ethics of workplace safety
"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
Dissertation haiku / senryu
My 2010 dissertation "Governing the Good" in 17 syllables:
Immanuel Kant
thought law must be coercive.
He was incorrect.
uspol
Several colleagues and I discuss the Red Hen controversy here:
Theranos and the SEC
James Angel: "The SEC is sending a very strong signal: Don’t lie to investors."
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/lessons-from-theranos/
Ethics courses in business schools
@pzmyers wrote, "It would also be so sweet if they [business schools] actually forced their graduates to learn some ethics."
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.
uspol
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?
Moral and legal philosopher teaching business ethics at the Wharton School. He/him.