A volume in Ethics in Practice
Series Editors Robert A. Giacalone, Temple University
and Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Louisiana State University
The purpose of this book is to develop ethical traditions based on Kant, Horkheimer, and others, to
extend beyond the level of individual behavior to address the social system level in business and
public administration. It is not enough to try to be good or ethical as individuals when it is systemic
processes which are fostering unethical behavior. Horkheimer's books Eclipse of Reason and Critique
of Instrumental Reason, and his early and now classic essay Materialism and Morality, ask
for a reformation of Kantian ethics. The reform is sought because the categorical imperative,
within the context of an individualism capitalism, serves to worsen the difference between business
ethics and moral philosophy. Therefore, Horkheimer asks that the maxims that would be made universal
would be done at the level of people organizing with others. This is the level addressed in
this volume, as we seek to change the system that is producing and reproducing unethical behaviors.