Moral Sense and Ethics in Economics and Finance

This chapter follows up on two major explanations of unethical behavior in the business community. The first focuses on the massive cultural changes originating from the rapid technological growth and globalization of the last few decades that have led to moral disorientation. The second view suggests there is a need for reorientation of education and practices of the business community toward morality and ethics. Before a theory of business ethics can be developed, it is critical to form a perspective of a moral sense which can provide philosophical basis for ethical behavior. What values determine the moral sense and how it affects economic and business behavior is essential to understand. The chapter provides such perspective from the history of economics and raises the question if a universal moral principle can be derived to formulate a theory of business ethics. The validity and applicability of the golden rulegolden rule is evaluated and it is argued that this rule as a universal principle should become the basis of business ethics.