Scott Martinez Abreu

#71094

3/26/2015
MEM 6710-80
Ethics in Business and Society

Within the video, The importance of Ethics in Business, the concept of ethics
was divided into two simple categories: positive ethics and negative ethics. Positive
ethics, as described by the speaker, gives people guidelines and makes everyone
accountable for their own actions. On the other hand, negative ethics tells people what
to do and how to do it, making them follow rules rather than be responsible for their own
actions.
Utilitarianism is the concept of putting the common good before a persons own
interests. Positive ethics and utilitarianism are very similar in that they both require
people to be accountable for their own behavior and hence, assuring others welfare.
When it comes to negative ethics, society and laws assure the public benefit by,
applying punishments based on the severity of the action rather than intention.
Using John Lockes concept of rights: laws and societys actions as a whole,
consist of the basic prerequisite that every human has or is entitled to certain benefits,
without the justification of causing harm to others. Within a humans rights, the concept
of positive ethics comes into play with the notion of each individuals right to certain
entitlements. This creates a basis for thinking of the greater good within a society as
known in utilitarianism but also makes people accountable for their own behavior and
minding the rights of others.
Justice and caring should be very closely related but are seen by most as
opposites. Justice is the equal treatment of benefits and burdens to individuals within a
society. Meanwhile, caring is more an emotional concept in deciding which actions are

right or wrong. The idea that, Justice is blind, demonstrates that no emotions or caring
is placed upon the person who defies a socially accepted rule or law, However, in the
United States legal system, the concept of cruel and unusual punishment states that a
certain level of care was placed into the judicial system to ensure certain basic human
rights. Actions that we personally deem acceptable or ethical are weighed by the justice
piece of ethics in an impartial and emotionless manner.
The video stipulated a very important characteristic of human nature as, The
more positive a persons self-esteem, the more ethical that person is likely to be. Each
individuals self-esteem is directly linked to their emotional state. The question being,
how does this relate to and which aspect of ethics does this person follow. Justice, as
discussed above, is completely emotionless and so has no impact on a persons selfesteem, unless in some way they feel that justice was done by them and that in itself
might be unethical. Utilitarianism should have no effect on a persons self-esteem since
thinking of societys wellbeing before his or her should have no impact. However, the
wellbeing of others does tend to liven utilitarian minded people in the aspect of
happiness rather than self-esteem.
Karl Marxs work in economics was very critical of the company/employee or free
market approach of capitalism. Within his critique, he stipulated that there would be an
eventual large gap between the owners and laborers, causing social injustice. Under his
concept, the laborers would never be able to earn enough to own as much as the
owners. Using the perception of utilitarianism, this would not be ethically acceptable and
since the owners are not benefitting society as a whole but utilizing the laborer to further
wealth. The laborer is also not benefitted since their salaries will never be enough to

even the social scale. The Marxist view of ethics in society would be considered just by
the owner as they have the means to provide production products while being seen as
unjust by the laborers or employees that will never be able to progress on their own
accord.
The speaker of the video also mentioned four words he will never accept: cant,
problem, failure and boredom. All the mentioned words are negatives in various
ways. The words cant, problem and failure are essentially words that depict
rejection and tend to lead to negativity or negative feelings. The word boredom has the
effect of creating instability, as when one has nothing to do; they tend to care less as it
is an ineffective feeling. Essentially, positive words lead to positive feelings, higher selfesteem and eventually more ethical people.