Hi, this is my philosophy course assignment in which you have to write an Argument Reconstruction paper. In order to write this critical thinking Argument Reconstruction paper, you have to follow some

Final Sample paper

Argument Reconstruction Assignment

An Argument against Profit as an Obligation

Brief Summary of Heath Argument:

According to Heath (pp. 540-41), many people think that the problem is that profit is associated with self-interest. Nevertheless, on the other hand, business ethics associate with a behavior that is altruistic or unselfish in some sort. Therefore, the moral status of profit can be described as a “principled constraint on the pursuit of self-interest.” Consequently, if profit is substituted with self-interest, then business ethics refer to some sort of principled constraint on the pursuit of profits rather than a mode of maximizing it.

Heath’s argument can be summarized as follows:

(1) Every action that brings self-interest is unethical. (premise)

(2) Every action that makes profit is self-interest. (premise)

(3) So, every action that makes profit is unethical. (1-2) ( Conclusion )

(4) If every action that makes profit is unethical then business ethics refers to principled constraint on the pursuit of profit. (premise)

(5) So, business ethics refers to principled constraint on the pursuit of profit.(3-4) (Conclusion )

Heath argues for premise (1) by induction. He presents a case: ethics is associate with behavior that is altruistic or unselfish in some sort. Assume if the presented case by Heath is true then any action that is selfish or self-interested are unethical, so any action that beings self-interest is unethical.

Heath does provide a reason to think that (2) is true, since in most people minds profit is associated with self-interest and that is true because an action is self-interest if the consequence of that action is that the person who does it getting rewarded for doing so. Adding more to this premise assume company main goal is to make profit and mangers are company’s employees, so mangers every action would be self-interested to make profit. Therefore, we should think that every action that makes profit is self-interest.

Health does not argue for (4), because he thinks it is obviously true. To see why, assume that every action that makes profit is unethical. This only leaves actions that makes profit is not unethical: actions that makes profit is ethical. Business ethics is associated with behavior that is selfless or altruistic. So, there is no reason to think that profit making actions wouldn’t in fact be unethical. Therefore, on the assumption that every action that makes profit is unethical, we should conclude that business ethics refers to principled constrained on the pursuit of profit.

My objection

I object Heath claim in his argument that many people tend to believe that the part of any firm is just based on self-interest. I think this is misguided, since there are good reasons to think that premise (1) is false. However, with the further development of economic theory, clear distinctions have been drawn between individual motivations and profit as an organizational goal, which parties may or may not pursue due to self-interest. A formal reconstruction of Heath’s argument can be given as follows:

1. The pursuit for profit is altruistic. (Premise)

2. Business ethics are associated with a behavior that is altruistic. (Premise)

3. Therefore, the pursuit of profit is ethical. (1-2) (Conclusion)

4. If the pursuit of profit is ethical then the business ethic should not refers to principled constraint on the pursuit of profit. (Premise)

5. So, the business ethic should not refers to principled constraint on the pursuit of profit. (3-4) ( Conclusion )

For premise (1), assume that Profit-maximization is an obligation of the managers rather than a pursuit for self-interest, implying that business ethics can be referred to as a principled restriction to egoistic behavior. To explain further, the confusion that the pursuit for profit and self-interest are the same is mainly based on two assumptions. First, organizations operating within a given market system seem to maximize their utility. The second assumption is that any competitive markets system lacks appreciation. Thus, the role of managers can be based indirectly on the role they play in this assumed economic system.

The reason to accept premise (2) is quite obvious. If someone is selfish, I would makes no sense for them to think about the ethics of business, as for him there is no reason to be with a behavior that is altruistic because he is self-interested. So, we should conclude that Business ethics are associated with a behavior that is altruistic.

Premise (4) is pretty obviously true. Assume that the pursuit of profit is ethical. Given that it follows that manager of different organizations will compete with one another due to the lure for profits. In an ideal market, such competition leads to an optimum price, leading to a situation where supply equals demand, leading to equitable allocation of resources, services, labor, and goods across the entire economy. However, because rational economic decision-making is not easy to make in the absence of a system of prices, some form of explicit calculation is preferred as an alternative, a process that has proven to be impossible practically (Heath, 5-20). So, on our assumption that the pursuit of profit is ethical, we should conclude that the business ethic should not refers to principled constraint on the pursuit of profit.

Conclusion

In this paper, Heath’s claim that an economic system based on the pursuit for profits to be morally impartial has been explained, and the foundation for its proof. The pursuit for profit is ethical since most firms undertake their daily activities to achieve morality and get people to operate more cooperatively rather than maximize their profits. The basic idea is that any socially induced collective action problem poses specific challenges based on moral justification. However, the system of market competition is justified based on the scarcity of practical alternatives. The challenge is showing that the moral status of profit ethics shows that a firm can maximize its profits without exhibiting any form of self-interest. This challenge is a burden of proof that remains impossible to explain.

Works cited

Heath, Joseph. "Business ethics and the ‘end of history’in corporate law." Journal of Business Ethics 102.1 (2011): 5-20.

Heath, Joseph. Morality, competition, and the firm: The market failures approach to business ethics. Oxford University Press, 2014.