Profit. If you went around and asked a random person if profit was a good, bad, or neutral thing, they’d probably tell you that obviously profit is great. However, philosophers find that concept debatable. So, let’s get into it and see what people believe and why. Profit is defined as the financial gain of a business when its revenue exceeds the costs in a specific period of time. For example, if a company spends $40K and gains $50K, the company’s profit would be $10K. Now

Although artificial intelligence is infiltrating a variety of aspects of the world, we most commonly interact with AI in social media. Be it manipulated political speeches, music, visual art, or simple scams, AI is prevalent in all sorts of social media apps. However, we’ll shift our focus to another sector of artificial intelligence presence: businesses. As COVID struck, dozens of small businesses took a hit. Unemployment skyrocketed, businesses that required communal human

As usual, let’s start with definitions. Shareholder Primacy is a corporate philosophy stating that a company’s primary focus should be maximizing wealth and returns for its shareholders above any other stakeholders, including employees, customers, or community interests. This idea was popularized by philosopher Milton Friedman. It states that management has the task of solely increasing profit. This is a pretty bold philosophy, as many of the philosophies we have discussed b

Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is a self-regulating business model in which companies integrate social, environmental, and ethical concerns into their decisions in order to make a positive impact. Let’s begin with Immanuel Kant. Before analyzing his beliefs in business, let’s analyze his general philosophical ideas. First, delving into Immanuel Kant’s beliefs, one of his most important ideas is the Formula of Humanity. This idea is that we must act in a way that we

Developed by European engineer C.H. Douglas, the Social Credit theory was formed in the 1900s and was made in response to a very commonly recognized flaw in capitalism. This flaw was the idea that most people don’t have the money to buy the goods that they produce themselves. Douglas believed that wages were so unfair that even though economies produce tons of goods, consumers can’t afford them, leading to chronic underconsumption; since factories produce but people can’t pur

Best known as a modernist poet, Ezra Pound formed a controversial theory on capitalism, most focusing on the aesthetic aspects of it. He studied the artistic aspects of human relationships. Notably, Pound hated usury, which is the concept of loaning money with an interest rate. Pound believed that usury was exploitative and unfairly enriched the loaner, corrupting economics, creativity, labor, and people. There are a variety of roots that provide the foundation for Pound’s t

Born in 1806, John Stuart Mill was a utilitarian philosopher and economist. He believed that economics should have the purpose of providing utilitarianism, or providing the greatest good for the greatest number. Mill, inspired by pre-existing economic ideas, such as Smith’s Invisible Hand Theory, focused more on the ethical and moral aspects of economics. Mill’s theory was rooted in utilitarianism–which we discussed in an earlier blog–classical economics, and the Enlightenme

Alasdair MacIntyre, born in 1929, was best known for authoring After Virtue, published in 1981. With philosophies rooted in Aristotelian virtue ethics, he argued that capitalist society lost their ethical sense of purpose. In other words, he believed that capitalist societies lost their senses of fulfilling honesty, justice, and courage. MacIntyre’s philosophy is rooted in many philosophies; today, we’ll go over three main ones. The first, as discussed as virtue ethics, is a

Created by Karl Marx, the theory of alienation argues that in capitalism, workers will become disconnected from labor and their humanity. Marx argues that instead of their work being a fulfilling source of creativity and purpose, it becomes a meaningless transaction that is a means for survival; Marx believed that capitalist societies turn everything into an economic instrument that dehumanizes laborers. Some philosophical roots include Hegel, Feuerbach, and the historical c

R. Edward Freeman founded the Stakeholder Theory in 1951, in his well-known work “Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (1984)”. His main aim was to create a theory that challenged the normal view at the time that businesses only existed to maximize shareholder wealth. Instead, he wanted to argue that long-term success is dependent on the interests of multiple stakeholders being balanced and accounted for. The main idea of the Stakeholder Theory is that business shoul

Adam Smith, a historically famous economics philosopher, was undeniably famous during the 18th century. He had a profound impact on United States economics and many argue that his philosophies played a major role in the Industrial Revolution. One of the arguably most impactful theories of Smith’s was the Invisible Hand Theory. The core idea in this theory was that when individuals are able to pursue a competitive market with their own interest in mind, then they would be able

For the next few articles, we’ll delve into the world of ethics in business. One very popular example is the philosophy of moral profit. The central idea of this philosophy is that profit should not be seen as a means to an end of a business, but rather an evidential prospect that shows a created value. In other words, profit is not to be seen as something that is extracted. Let’s first discuss the roots of this philosophy. One root is Aristotle’s Eudaimonia, which believes

Developed during 551 BCE, Confucius created Confucianism in ancient China, a philosophy focused on harmony, formalities, and virtue. It...

Inspired by Audre Lorde’s essay “The Uses of Anger”, the term Lordean Rage was coined by philosopher Myisha Cherry. This phrase, simply...

To begin, let’s dive into the basic background of Hindu Dharma ethics. Hindu ethics are deeply rooted in the idea of Dharma. Dharma is...

The social contract, founded during the Enlightenment era by a multitude of philosophers, discusses the role of humans in the government....

“Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” translates to “I am because we are” in Xhosa. It essentially sums up the moral philosophical idea of Ubuntu...

Split-brain experiments were hugely scientific at first, but later developed into a philosophical discussion. The beginning of this...

While the Dirty Hands Problem has been popularly debated for centuries, the term was coined by political theorist Michael Walzer through...

Linguistic Relativism is a complex philosophical theory that explores the idea that our perception of reality is not universal but rather...