RT Article
T1 Does Milton Friedman Support a Vigorous Business Ethics?
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 87
IS 3
SP 391
OP 399
A1 Cosans, Christopher
LA English
YR 2009
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785634879
AB This paper explores the level of obligation called for by Milton Friedman’s classic essay “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits.” Several scholars have argued that Friedman asserts that businesses have no or minimal social duties beyond compliance with the law. This paper argues that this reading of Friedman does not give adequate weight to some claims that he makes and to their logical extensions. Throughout his article, Friedman emphasizes the values of freedom, respect for law, and duty. The principle that a business professional should not infringe upon the liberty of other members of society can be used by business ethicists to ground a vigorous line of ethical analysis. Any practice, which has a negative externality that requires another party to take a significant loss without consent or compensation, can be seen as unethical. With Friedman’s framework, we can see how ethics can be seen as arising from the nature of business practice itself. Business involves an ethics in which we consider, work with, and respect strangers who are outside of traditional in-groups.
K1 stockholder theory
K1 Stakeholder Theory
K1 Society
K1 respect for law
K1 Profits
K1 negative externality
K1 John Stuart Mill
K1 Liberty
K1 Milton Friedman
K1 Freedom
K1 ethics of business
K1 Duty
DO 10.1007/s10551-008-9927-5