我们的想象文学阅读将补充阅读传统哲学道德的重要著作中的节选（包括柏拉图、亚里士多德，马基雅维利，霍布斯，康德）。这些文本都有很高的文学价值，是对执行权威的来源和合法性的知识性争论，这对话过程也是对职业生涯的道德的宝贵观点。阅读材料同样包括企业领导的天性的背景环境的节选，和在企业管理中产生典型的道德两难局面的简单案例学习。

本课程的目的不是加强学生的道德或是提供一整套方便的道德行为的决策过程，而是使学生熟悉假设每个人在判断中运用大量道德准则的详情。所选的阅读和讨论材料的主导原则是我们本质上是有道德的，但我们会因自己的行为而陷入自我矛盾的对话和抉择中，这种困惑产生于我们大部分遵守的道德标准并非是系统化的。本课程假设道德准则天生就是毫无体系的，这就是为何道德行为的决策过程是徒劳的了。简而言之，由于我们的道德责任不能累加，遵守了一条（或一套）准则就需要违反另一条。我們的決策依循于西方文明的哲学道德的两大主要传统，阅读和讨论目的是探究在多大的程度上这种情况是可以追踪的。这两大传统，一条关于道德价值，一条关于责任的本分与满足感。

一周两次，每次两小时。每次课开始时有一个20分钟到半小时的讲座，前两次课的讲座会长些。余下时间用来课堂讨论布置的材料。可见没有休息，每堂课的最后20分钟，几组同学需要介绍一下材料的观点。参与讨论很重要，学生评论的是否有力和中肯将关系到成绩。成绩还取决于两次书面作业的质量：一份期中论文（5-7页）、一份期末论文（10-12页）。论文要与阅读和讨论有关，题目可以自拟，但在论文截至日前的二周，会下发建议选题的单子。

我們的會面將會依照課程大綱，但每週課堂時間內的進度將會決定完成多少單元内容，以及多少內容會被延續到下一周的課程去。換句話說，我們假設有些單元所花的時間將會比其他的單元時間要多。（但一個單元絕不會超過兩次課堂的時間）而某些所花的時間則是較少。標記的作者和作品代表的是補充主要閱讀資料的內容。每週的閱讀資料大約會有六十頁左右。

We will supplement our readings in imaginative literature with brief excerpts from important works in the tradition of philosophical ethics (by Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant). These texts are also of classic stature, parts of the repertoire of educated argument about the sources and legitimate aims of executive authority and valuable points of reference in conversations about ethics in professional life. The readings also include excerpts from texts concerned with the nature of corporate leadership and brief case studies reflecting the ways in which common ethical dilemmas typically arise in the course of corporate management.

The aim of the course is not to strengthen the student's ethical character or to provide a set of handy decision-procedures for ethical conduct but rather to develop familiarity with the ins and outs of a fair range of ethical concepts, to whose use in judgment, it is assumed, everyone is already committed. The governing view behind the selection of materials to be read and discussed is that our characters are already ethical to the core, but that our arguments with ourselves about rival courses of action are perplexed by the unsystematic nature of the ethical principles to which all of us in large measure subscribe. Our course of study takes as its assumption that ethical principles are unsystematic by nature. This goes to explain why decision-procedures for ethical conduct are unavailing. In brief, since our ethical commitments do not "add up", the need to honor one principle (or set of principles) in our conduct frequently entails betraying another. The readings and discussion aim at exploring the extent to which this condition can be made tractable, drawing largely upon the two main traditions of philosophic ethics in Western culture-the one that deals with ethical values, the other with duties and the satisfaction of obligations.

The subject meets once a week for two hours. Each session begins with a lecture of varying length, but usually running for twenty-minutes to half an hour, although the lectures of the first two meetings will be somewhat longer. The rest of the session is devoted to class-discussion of the materials assigned for the session. There are no break-out sessions, but groups of students will be appointed from time to time to present a view of some of the materials during the last twenty minutes of the session. Participation in discussion is essential to the life of the class and the force and cogency of students' remarks will have a marked influence on grades. Much of the grade will also depend upon the quality of the two written assignments required by the course: a mid-term paper (running from five to seven pages) and a final paper (running from ten to twelve pages). The papers will each deal with some aspect of the readings and discussion; topics may be invented by the students but an extensive list of suggested topics will be circulated two weeks in advance of each paper's due date for those students who require it.

Our meetings will follow the course outlined but each week's meeting will determine how much of the unit under discussion will be completed during its session and how much carried forward into the next meeting. It is assumed, in other words, that some units will take more than one session (although never so much as two) and some will take less. Indented authors and titles indicate materials subsidiary to the main readings. The readings will average 60 pages per week.