None of Your Business Ethics

By Matthew Thomas Caulfield

Secrets structure our social lives. They allow us to shape our identity, to protect

our innermost selves, and to avoid shame, humiliation, judgment, and influence. There

can be no question that secrecy is an essential attribute of modern social life (Adut, 2018;

Bok, 1989; Goffman, 1959; Jones, 2014). But what of our economic lives? This

dissertation aims to shed light on the ethics of secrecy in economic life, both for

managers of large firms and for individuals within markets. It is the first to inquire

directly into the moral theory of secrecy in commercial contexts as it intersects with

concepts from business ethics, organizational theory, legal theory, and normative political

economy.

Essay 1 addresses a range of theoretical issues in secrecy, transparency, and moral

theory. Essay 2 considers a particular contested case of corporate secrecy-pay secrecy.

This essay's applied discussion also generates several additional insights for a more

general ethics of corporate secrecy and self-regulation. Essay 3 shifts away from the

corporate perspective toward the generic market actor's perspective, investigating the

moral-economic justifications we may have for refusing to transact with certain other

actors in markets. It also illustrates why more secrecy will in some cases be a morally

beneficial feature of markets.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1835205739
• ISBN13: 9781835205730
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Hbnisha
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"