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Before Virtue: Biology, Brain, Behavior, and the “Moral Sense”

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  • Sadler-Smith, Eugene

Abstract

Biological, brain, and behavioral sciences offer strong and growing support for the virtue ethics account of moral judgment and ethical behavior in business organizations. The acquisition of moral agency in business involves the recognition, refinement, and habituation through the processes of reflexion and reflection of a moral sense encapsulated in innate modules for compassion, hierarchy, reciprocity, purity, and affiliation adaptive for communal life both in ancestral and modern environments. The genetic and neural bases of morality exist independently of institutional frameworks and social structures. The latter not only shape moral behaviors within circumscribed limits, they also imply a plurality and compartmentalization of roles which may enable or impede the habituation of virtue. Becoming a virtuous agent entails the practical refinement of predispositions in situ as a member of a community of practitioners rather than entailing a normative ethical educational project seeking an intellectual resolution of abstract moral questions.

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  • Sadler-Smith, Eugene, 2012. "Before Virtue: Biology, Brain, Behavior, and the “Moral Sense”," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 351-376, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:22:y:2012:i:02:p:351-376_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Alpaslan, Can M. & Mitroff, Ian I., 2021. "Exploring the moral foundations of crisis management," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Lucas, David S. & Park, U. David, 2023. "The nature and origins of social venture mission: An exploratory study of political ideology and moral foundations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).
    3. Joseph McManus, 2021. "Emotions and Ethical Decision Making at Work: Organizational Norms, Emotional Dogs, and the Rational Tales They Tell Themselves and Others," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 153-168, February.
    4. Rafi M. M. I. Chowdhury, 2019. "The Moral Foundations of Consumer Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 585-601, September.
    5. Andersen, Margaret L. & Klamm, Bonnie K., 2018. "Haidt’s social intuitionist model: What are the implications for accounting ethics education?," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 35-46.
    6. Yun Liu & Greg. G. Wang & Yu Chen, 2019. "Why Are Corporations Willing to Take on Public CSR? An Organizational Traits Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16, January.
    7. Maxim Egorov & Armin Pircher Verdorfer & Claudia Peus, 2019. "Taming the Emotional Dog: Moral Intuition and Ethically-Oriented Leader Development," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 817-834, December.
    8. Erica Steckler & Cynthia Clark, 2019. "Authenticity and Corporate Governance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 951-963, April.
    9. Khuram Shahzad & Ying Hong & Alan Muller & Marco DeSisto & Farheen Rizvi, 2024. "An Investigation of the Relationship Between Ethics-Oriented HRM Systems, Moral Attentiveness, and Deviant Workplace Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 591-608, July.
    10. Maxim Egorov & Karianne Kalshoven & Armin Pircher Verdorfer & Claudia Peus, 2020. "It’s a Match: Moralization and the Effects of Moral Foundations Congruence on Ethical and Unethical Leadership Perception," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 707-723, December.
    11. Chris Provis, 2017. "Intuition, Analysis and Reflection in Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 5-15, January.

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