Consilience in Business Ethics

Abstract

This paper examines the question of whether a consilient theoretical framework for the study of business ethics can be developed. If a certain compatibility is to be found among the current and differing approaches to business ethics, such compatibility must be drawn from an understanding of the consilience of business ethics theory with its adjoining disciplines. In this paper human social exchange is seen as the essential linkage between human psychology and economic activity and, from there, to broader issues of social and cultural reciprocity. The method used to examine exchange is derived from praxeology as developed by the Austrian School of economics. From this level of abstraction, it is then possible to craft a definition of moral exchange in a more concrete form, as being the absence of net coercion between the parties to an exchange. Motivations driven by the notion of subjective value are applied to both the supply and demand side. This conception of value exchange is presented as being capable of integrating the elements of psychology, sociology, and culture. The resulting calculus supplies an immanent framework for deriving moral conclusions about economic activity. As a result of its starting point in social exchange, this approach is able to connect with the evolutionary past of human beings as well the higher developments of culture, including the philosophical approaches to business ethics.