Synopses & Reviews
ABOVE THE BOTTOM LINE focuses on the issues of the individual in the business environment, rather than focusing on large-scale, ethical decision making. Business is defended as a necessary and valuable component of contemporary life, a range of entrepreneurial ventures that should be approached in a principled, thoughtful, and honest manner. Looking at the importance of corporate culture, students are given direction in making personal and professional decisions at work, relating these to the concepts of social responsibility, employer and employee rights, whistle-blowing, corporate governance, bankruptcy, and many other timely business issues. This text explores moral choices within the business environment, and considers current business policy issues. It is also a guide on how to think about business and a life in business, using vignettes from history and bits of literature and anthropology to broaden the students' outlook on commercial endeavors.
Review
"Robert C. Solomon, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, is Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published more than thirty books and over one hundred and fifty articles focusing on ethics, business ethics, the emotions, and the history of philosophy (most notably, Post-Kantian Continental philosophy). He is the author or (co-)editor of numerous textbooks and anthologies used in college classrooms throughout the world. Among these titles are SINCE SOCRATES, ON ETHICS AND LIVING WELL, TWENTY QUESTIONS: AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY, BIG QUESTIONS: A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY, and ABOVE THE BOTTOM LINE, all published by Wadsworth. Before assuming his current post, he taught at Princeton, University of California Los Angeles, and the University of Pittsburgh. He is a yearly visitor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He regularly consults and provides programs in business ethics for corporations and organizations around the world."
About the Author
Robert C. Solomon (1942-2007) was internationally renowned as a teacher and lecturer in philosophy. He was Quincy Lee Centennial Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and over the course of his career taught at numerous institutions, including Princeton University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Auckland, and the University of California, in addition to the University of Texas. He authored more than 40 books, including INTRODUCING PHILOSOPHY, A SHORT HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, THE PASSIONS, IN THE SPIRIT OF HEGEL, ABOUT LOVE, ABOVE THE BOTTOM LINE, Fourth Edition (with Clancy Martin), ETHICS AND EXCELLENCE, THE JOY OF PHILOSOPHY, and TRUE TO OUR FEELINGS, and he was co-editor of TWENTY QUESTIONS, Fifth Edition (with Lee Bowie and Meredith Michaels), and SINCE SOCRATES (with Clancy Martin). Clancy Martin has published textbooks and articles on business ethics, normative ethics, and 19th century European philosophy. In 2003 he co-authored, also with Robert Solomon, the third edition of ABOVE THE BOTTOM LINE. He is an assistant professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and has taught at Southwestern University, St. Edward's University, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Business Ethics as Personal and Professional Integrity. 1. Business, Ethics, and the Good Life. 2. Business Life, Law, and Ethics. 3. Conflicts of Interest and the Meaning of Morality. 4. Corporations and Cultures. 5. Rules, Roles, and Responsibilities. 6. Competition, Games, and Decisions. 7. Rationality, Ends and Means, Co-Operation, and Co-Ordination. 8. "Its Not My Problem:" The Concept of Responsibility. 9. Social Responsibility and the Stakeholder. 10. Free Enterprise and Social Justice. 11. Human Rights and International Business. 12. Freedom and Power: Privacy and Pressures in the Workplace. 13. The Meaning of Work. 14. The Personal Side of Business: Friendship, Family, Sex, and Marriage. Conclusion: Doing Good and Doing Well.