Abstract

Casuistry, Virtue, and Business Ethics brings together in a new way three important methods in business ethics: casuistry, virtue ethics, and the business case method. It considers the overlap and synergy of casuistry and virtue ethics as well as the similarities of casuistry and the business case method. In the end, it recommends a combined casuistic and virtue ethical approach to the resolution of ethical problems in business. ;The text begins with a consideration of casuistry as an inductive method of ethical deliberation reliant on the use of cases, analogies, and maxims. In its reliance on cases, casuistry is similar to--but not identical to--the case method typically used in business. Not unlike the case method, casuistry contextualizes indistinct principles, theories, and intuitions about what is right and wrong for decision-makers. Casuistry, however, maintains a taxonomy of cases that are arranged according to their moral certainty. Casuistry thereby attempts to provide ordinary people with the guidance necessary to make practical moral judgments in the workplace. ;Although casuistry is an ordered way of deliberating about ethical matters, it can be misused. Moreover, it must actually be invoked to be of any use. People, in other words, must have an interest and drive in moral matters to engage casuistry well. This is the role open to virtue ethics. ;Virtue ethics considers the character of the person. In particular, it considers the "excellence of soul" that drives people to deliberate about moral matters, to try to make right decisions, and to try to become better as people. ;Casuistry, Virtue, and Business Ethics maintains that casuistry and virtue ethics work best in combination with each other. It argues that good casuistry demands the guidance of virtue ethics and that virtue and personal character is enhanced by the practicality afforded by casuistry. ;Together, casuistry and virtue ethics produce a synergy that is greater than the aggregate sum of the two in isolation. This synergy can be helpful to managers who are concerned about making right ethical decisions in business