Want to be as prepared as possible to handle the
ethical challenges you are certain to face in your career
(and personal life)? Willing to learn
from the failures (and successes) of others?
Interested in learning how to “keep your
cool” and bring the best you’ve got to difficult
situations?
Curious about better understanding others’
behavior (and your own)?
This Spring, two sections of Business Ethics
for the 21st Century are being offered, to
strengthen students’ abilities to anticipate,
critically analyze, appropriately respond to, and provide
personal and professional leadership regarding, the
ethical issues that will arise both specifically during
a career in business and generally in life.
Ethical decisions are far more than just “tough
choices.” Ethics comes from the Greek root ethos,
meaning essential character. When we make ethical decisions,
we are, each time, actually re-creating ourselves, our
relationships, our own lives, and the world we live-in.
At the same time, however, traditional sources of wisdom
(elders, families, ethnic traditions, classical religions)
are frequently incapable of providing substantial and
concrete orientation and guidance in the complex, fast-paced,
multi-ethnic, evolving global society where we find
ourselves today.
More than at any other time in history, business is
re-shaping the way we think, feel, choose, relate, and,
in fact, live. More than any other human force, business
is impacting every aspect of all life on Earth, and
is altering fundamental planetary dynamics.
This course is not a simple discussion of some other
person’s ideas of “right” and “wrong.”
The course is designed to provide each student with
actual tools for greater personal clarity about core
values and more confident and effective ability for
comprehensive ethical decision-making and action --
at work and at home.
The course will deeply explore those characteristics
of human nature that currently hinder ethical behavior
and the realization of maximum human potential, as well
highlighting as those characteristics and practices
that can, with cultivation, allow all of us to more
fully realize our inherent integration, imagination,
creative capacity, and fully-satisfying participation
in the business of life and the larger Earth adventure.
Topics, which will draw-upon multi-disciplinary revelations
from the 20th century in quantum physics, more comprehensive
evolutionary understanding, systems theory, depth psychology,
etc., and thus allow us to meet the challenges of the
21st century with unprecedented insight, will include:
|
| Instruction will be
based-on lecture and case analysis, the discussion of
topical and philosophical articles, essays and videos,
and experiential exercises.
No prior background in business, ethics, or philosophy
is required. All majors are welcome.
For more course information and comments from past
students: http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/phillips/
Instructor: Jack Phillips (http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/phillips.html)
has been a member of the faculty at U.C. Berkeley since
1987, and at the Haas School of Business since 1989,
and is a two-time recipient of the Cheit award for distinction
in teaching. Jack holds a B.A. in Rhetoric from U.C.
Berkeley, and a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law
(followed by 15 years of professional experience in
commercial and nonprofit law), is a certified Iyengar
Yoga and Pranayama instructor, and a certified Brainwave
and Consciousness Trainer. Jack is primarily interested
in the development of individual human potential, and
the integration of this potential into an ultimate context
of meaning and purpose.
01/16/2008
|
