Ethics and the Social Responsibility of Business
             Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with determining what conduct is good or right and what conduct is bad or wrong. Good or right conduct is said to be ethical or moral. Bad or wrong conduct is said to be unethical or immoral. Ethics attempts to determine what people "should" do in order to "do the right thing." Philosophers generally say that what someone "should" do in a given setting is a "moral obligation" or a "moral duty."
             Business ethics is a subset of ethics generally. No special ethical principles apply only in business settings. Ethics is taught in business schools today because there has been a sense in recent years that some people in business have acted in unethical ways. Examples include tobacco company advertising that attempted for decades to persuade consumers that cigarettes promoted health and were not addictive; the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s; and in recent years, the accounting fraud at Enron and other companies. Since at least the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, some people in business have been accused of enriching themselves at the expense of society.
             Determining what conduct is legal is not the same question as determining what conduct is ethical. Determining whether conduct is legal involves (in the United States, at least) a comparison of that conduct to standards established by central authorities of government: legislatures and courts. In determining whether conduct is ethical, we don't have such central authorities to turn to for guidance.
             The proposition that "if conduct is legal, then it is ethical" is almost certainly false. For example, American law traditionally imposes no legal obligation to rescue a stranger in peril. For example, suppose someone walking on a beach observes a stranger drowning in the water. The law does not require the observer to do anything to assist the drowning person, even if su...