J. VERSTRAETEN (ed.)
Business Ethics. Broadening the Perspectives, Leuven, Peeters, 2000.

This book is the second part of the core materials project of the European Ethics Network. This project, subsidized by the European Commission DG XXII, has made it possible to produce texts and fundamental frameworks for the development of courses in professional ethics, business ethics, engineering ethics and medical ethics.
The target groups are instructors, lecturers and professors. The texts we present here are not intended to be used as immediate course material, but as a source of inspiration for the development of courses adapted to local situations and personal interpretations.
In this volume on business ethics we try to present a coherent vision which takes into account the tension between three levels of analysis.
The first chapter, written by Joseph Lozano, focuses on the interaction between companies and society, with special attention to their social responsibility.
In the second chapter Jef Van Gerwen treats the meso-level of analysis: of companies as organizations which are in a process of becoming institutions. In his text he gives a survey of different ways of approaching corporate ethics: social contract theory, stakeholder model, corporate governance ethics, the cognitive-developmental approach, the Socratic method and the narrative method, with a special attention to discernment and the problem of tragic choices.
In the first part of the third chapter, which is a transition from the meso- to the micro-level, Thomas Brytting describes how companies can function as moral spaces in which individuals can acquire moral competence. According to him companies function as moral spaces in which individuals develop the dialogical ability to perceive, reflect and act on moral issues with preserved integrity.
In the second part Johan Verstraeten analyzes business ethics on the individual level. He demonstrates that it is not only important to make concrete moral decisions, but also to integrate moral choices in a meanigful life.

B. PATTYN (ed.)
Media Ethics, Opening Social Dialogue, Leuven, Peeters, 2000.