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Can We Teach Character: An Aristotelian Answer By Edwin M. Hartman

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Name: Lam Luu
Bus 102 – Discussion 024 – Friday 9:10 – 10:00 am
TA’s name: Michelle Manning
January 24, 2014
ARTICLE REVIEW ONE
Introduction
Mentioning about business classes, students may think about finance, marketing, accounting, management and so on. However, ethics class is designed for all business students to understand about ethics and how to do moral business. The article Can We Teach Character? An Aristotelian Answer by Edwin M. Hartman explains the principle of ethics and how the schools can teach their business students good characters. The author emphasizes on the Aristotle’s principles of well-being and ethics and how to apply these principles to real life.
Background information
Firstly, Hartman defines what ethics is and how …show more content…

With the character and interests, Aristotle states that the virtue should start from moral behavior, which means treating other people well and not being self-interest. Next aspect is the values and strength of character, which explains the companion between values and ethics. In order to be a virtual person with strong character, that person has to have good values, generosity, honesty and motivation. In addition, it is really important for people to be moral and happy at the same time. In order to understand the concept of ethics more, people need to perceive what the factors of a good and happy life are. People cannot be really happy if they do good things because someone is watching them. It is a forced action. Morality is truly shown when people are willing to do so, not when they are forced to. Therefore, ethics is not composed of rules that people have to follow. It is the principle that people understand and voluntarily do right things. Besides the daily life, ethics principle is also applied to community and culture. All business students need to understand the concept of ethics in their future career. In workplaces or organizations, culture and moral behavior have strong connection among employees. Business students have to study organizational behavior class upon graduation to shape the ideas of cultural differences and moral behavior in their mind and prepare to act …show more content…

According to Hartman, we cannot decide the job or solution for a person; we just help him or her to figure out the perception by him/herself, create good values while ensure the happiness (79). Teaching ethics class for business students is a good idea to help them imagine their future and decide a right path for themselves. Thousands students learn the same things but each of them will have different outcomes. In order to ensure the accuracy of the research, people need to implement the studies on different students based on their races, genders, and cultures. Those factors can affect differently on the same principle. In conclusion, no matter who we are, what we do, one of the most important things is being a virtual person. We have to make sure that everything we do; we are doing right even though no one is watching

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