Business is one thing, Ethics is Another: Revisiting Bernard Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Bragues
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Corporate Scandals ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Business Ethicist ◽  
Critical Ethic ◽  
Bernard Mandeville

Abstract:Recent corporate scandals raise an old question anew: is capitalism fundamentally infected by immorality? A now almost forgotten answer to this question was advanced at the dawn of capitalism, an answer that students of business ethics would find profit in considering. In the early eighteenth century, Bernard Mandeville authored The Fable of the Bees, which became notorious in its day for arguing that capitalism created wealth while necessarily relying on vicious impulses. The fundamental dilemma is that morality requires self-denial while capitalism runs on self-interest. As such, Mandeville claims that business and ethics are essentially separate.While this would appear to align him with skeptics of business ethics, Mandeville does suggest a role for moral theorists in dealing with the challenges of commercial societies. The Mandevillean business ethicist proceeds by separating the public and private spheres. In the former, where government policy toward business is at issue, the Mandevillean ethicist applies a market-friendly utilitarianism. In the latter, where individual conduct is at issue, the Mandevillean gently articulates a market-critical ethic predicated on self-restraint.

Early Debates

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Llano
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Domestic Space ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Conduct Manuals ◽  
The Public ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The Social ◽  
Undeserving Poor

This chapter provides an account of how organilleros elicited public anger because their activity did not fit into any of the social aid categories that had been in place since the late eighteenth century. Social aid in Spain relied on a clear-cut distinction between deserving and undeserving poor in order to rationalize the distribution of limited resources and reduce mendicancy on the streets. Organilleros could not, strictly speaking, be considered idle, since they played music, but their activity required no specific skills and was regarded with suspicion as a surrogate form of begging. The in-betweenness of the organillero caused further anger as it challenged attempts to establish a neat distinction between public and private spaces. On one hand, organillo music penetrated the domestic space, which conduct manuals of the nineteenth century configured as female; on the other, it brought women into the public space, which those manuals configured as male.

Relationship between CSR motivations and corporate social performance: a study in the power industry in India

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moumita Acharyya ◽  
Tanuja Agarwala
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Corporate Social Performance ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Power Sector ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Public And Private Sector

PurposeThe paper aims to understand the different motivations / reasons for engaging in CSR initiatives by the organizations. In addition, the study also examines the relationship between CSR motivations and corporate social performance (CSP).Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from two power sector organizations: one was a private sector firm and the other was a public sector firm. A comparative analysis of the variables with respect to private and public sector organizations was conducted. A questionnaire survey was administered among 370 employees working in the power sector, with 199 executives from public sector and 171 from private sector.Findings“Philanthropic” motivation emerged as the most dominant CSR motivation among both the public and private sector firms. The private sector firm was found to be significantly higher with respect to “philanthropic”, “enlightened self-interest” and “normative” CSR motivations when compared with the public sector firms. Findings suggest that public and private sector firms differed significantly on four CSR motivations, namely, “philanthropic”, “enlightened self-interest”, “normative” and “coercive”. The CSP score was significantly different among the two power sector firms of public and private sectors. The private sector firm had a higher CSP level than the public sector undertaking.Research limitations/implicationsFurther studies in the domain need to address differences in CSR motivations and CSP across other sectors to understand the role of industry characteristics in influencing social development targets of organizations. Research also needs to focus on demonstrating the relationship between CSP and financial performance of the firms. Further, the HR outcomes of CSR initiatives and measurement of CSP indicators, such as attracting and retaining talent, employee commitment and organizational climate factors, need to be assessed.Originality/valueThe social issues are now directly linked with the business model to ensure consistency and community development. The results reveal a need for “enlightened self-interest” which is the second dominant CSR motivation among the organizations. The study makes a novel contribution by determining that competitive and coercive motivations are not functional as part of organizational CSR strategy. CSR can never be forced as the very idea is to do social good. Eventually, the CSR approach demands a commitment from within. The organizations need to emphasize more voluntary engagement of employees and go beyond statutory requirements for realizing the true CSR benefits.

States in transition

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Imbrogno
Keyword(s):  
Health Service ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Human Services ◽  
Service System ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health Service System

The Moldovan government is expected to democratize and modernize a social and health service system that was originally subordinated to a highly centralized, authoritative and planned system in Moscow. The newly independent Moldova has embarked upon the transformation of its political and economic institutions. Legislation has been criticized for diverting funding needed to alleviate poverty into building a market economy. Government policy depends on how problems are conceptualized and their causes analysed, whether critical social dimensions are taken seriously, and on the degree to which the public and private sectors in the human services are integrated through the social work profession.

Justice and the Bounds of Welfare

1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Means And Ends ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
The Welfare State

ABSTRACTThe welfare state is but the vehicle for the provision of welfare and the latter does not necessarily entail the former. Much recent debate occasioned by government policy and rhetoric has therefore confused means and ends. This paper argues that a defence of welfare must come before a concern for protecting the welfare state. A number of foundations for guaranteed welfare provision, including justice, rights and contract are considered but the most persuasive foundation for welfare as need-meeting is found to lie in the Kantian categorical imperatives. Not only do these provide a moral prescription that welfare ought to be provided, they also dictate the ways in which it ought to be provided. It is against these requirements therefore that the necessity of a welfare state as a means of providing welfare can be tested. The second part of the paper then considers how extensive a welfare state needs to be, and how the boundaries between the public and private domains in the provision of welfare may be drawn. The equality principle, allied to the notion of equality of welfare, is found to be a useful instrument in determining the bounds of the public domain but only (so the paper concludes reluctantly) when harnessed to objective specifications of need.

scholarly journals Conceptualization of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) as a Service System Using S-D Logic Lens

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-99
Author(s):  
Sara Shafaqat ◽  
Abdul Rashid Kausar ◽  
Syed Ahmad Ali
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Organizational Effectiveness ◽  
Service System ◽  
Private University ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Value Proposition ◽  
University System ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Interest

This qualitative study provides a tentative theory of university as a service system using the S-D logic lens. Presently, the universities are working under G-D logic, where the networks & entities are performing under the different agendas to contribute to the whole ecology with the approach of unilateral transfer of services/resources. However, the organizational effectiveness highly depends on actively interacting with its internal and external networks to seek valuable resources to ensure its functioning through a shared worldview. Therefore, universities need to develop an architecture of participation where actors connect and collaborate through a shared vision. The results of G-D logic-based university system revealed the dominant factors; “the behaviour of people” which is opportunistic, and “dealings” have been done in self-interest, as the system is complex and based on indirect interactions. This study presents a solution by the conceptualization of universities as service system; the propositions reveal a mechanism of resource integration through which entities and networks link resources through forming the value proposition for mutual benefits. Thereby, this mechanism may be used as “transparent check of governance” in which all the public and private university system’s constraints may be mitigated by the application of S-D logic.

The Emotional Side of Men in Late Eighteenth-Century Germany (Theory and Example)

1994 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Charlott Trepp
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Family And Household ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Anglo American

For a long time, the emotional, more intimate and private spheres of life have not been taken seriously by historians. Only the public side of life has been considered to be a legitimate subject for scholars. Disregard of “the private” is as yet not a practice of the past, in particular when traditional historians are concerned. In spite of the “new, wide-ranging anthropological orientation” of historiography in the last few years, the marginalization of private life is, (in contrast to French and Anglo-American historical research) still the norm in Germany. The reasons for this disinterest in the private are numerous, but lie primarily in the tenaciously held, often not openly expressed, assumption that the nature of the private is in itself ahistorical. In contrast to the public, (a correlation considered to be dualistic) the private is seen as an anthropological constant, “timeless” and universal, simply a part of “nature.” The private, used synonymously for the spheres of marriage, family, and household, thus was placed beyond history, and therefore beyond historical change. This more than anything else determined that women had no “history” (Geschichtslosigkeit)—their inherited place was, after all, to be found within the context of family and household. Against this background, the binary concept of public and private appeared to be a promising heuristic tool for tracing women in history for quite sometime.

Sedan chairmen in eighteenth-century London

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Mary Anne Garry
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Hours ◽  
Per Se

Most household account books of the eighteenth-century London elite contain entries for ‘Sedan chairmen’, albeit they were never servants per se. Little consulted as sources for transport history, these unpublished accounts in various public and private archives in England reveal that Sedan chairmen were independent and worked for themselves. Supplemented by contemporary material, court cases, diaries and correspondence, light is shed on when Sedan chairs first appeared in London, on how the public overcame initial repugnance at the idea of being carried, on the earnings of chairmen, the hours they worked and the diverse tasks asked of them. Examples are given of chairmen’s position in London society, their status and how they regarded themselves. The sources show how chairmen responded to market forces and for over a hundred years played a part in inner London mobility and transport.

Perspectives on Harold Frederic's Market-Place

PMLA ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-405
Author(s):  
Jean Frantz Blackall
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Full Length ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Complex Character ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Moral Statement ◽  
Self Interest

Joel Thorpe of The Market-Place is Harold Frederic's most complex character. Thorpe is portrayed as the psychological product of two worlds, the type of the financial buccaneer, and a moral double. In a full-length portrait, subjective as well as objective, Frederic renders Thorpe's character in dramatic terms and integrates his behavior in public and private life. Most important, he offers a moral probing of Thorpe's type. Frederic judges him morally both through the remarks of reliable characters and through his own ironic implications. Yet both plots, the terms in which the economic battle is defined, and certain sympathetic aspects of characterization all work against the assumption that Frederic wholly condemns Thorpe. If Thorpe is shown to sin according to traditional moralities by fulfilling his impulses, he is likewise shown to sin according to his own understanding when he ceases to exercise his own peculiar impulse to power. The ambiguity of Thorpe's portrait deepens his characterization but obscures the moral statement of the novel. This ambiguity may be explained in part by autobiographical factors and in part by an ambivalence toward the tycoon that Frederic shared with other nineteenth- century American writers. Specifically, Frederic's preoccupation with the type, his questioning whether self-interest and the public weal may both be served by such a figure, and his failure either to damn Thorpe wholly or to show how coexistence between the buccaneer and society might actually occur may all point to an imaginative source for The Market-Place in Emerson's essay on Napoleon.

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