Ethical considerations in solving economic problems

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of ethics in business. The positive attitude to ethics declared by some liberal economists confronts business units with new dilemmas. The economic conflicts, wars, and pandemic crisis treated as a challenge for economic recovery highlight the ethical side of choices. In this way, individualistic rationality is confronted with multilateral benefits. The relation between ethical norms and economic criteria considers the point of view respecting human participation in the process of managing a business. As a consequence, ignorance of ethics in business as a concept of applied ethics, which means ethical relativism, leads man to a crisis of values depriving the system of the liberal economy of a sense of orientation and thus hindering the search for rational solutions.Ethics introduces a personalistic dimension to economic considerations associated with an individual responsibility coming from respect for human values and dignity. In the social aspect, compliance with ethics is acondition of mutual acceptance, cooperation, and bonding within the community. Ultimately, the place of ethics in economics is a consequence of the relationship of economics with humans and, at the same time, the attitude of individuals to ethics. Paying more attention to ethical issues serves the humanisation of economic relations, displaces business egotism, and awakens the tendency to cooperate by seeking the common good.