Thomas Donaldson – författare

This widely used business ethics book begins by introducing students/readers to moral reasoning. A collection of readings and cases from both philosophical literature and business articles apply ethical theory to real-life business situations. Well-known scandals involving companies like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Merrill Lynch, and Parmalat have increased public awareness of business ethics, underscored its importance, and ushered in a new era of increased corporate regulation and governance.

Now, more than ever, a student planning on entering the business world, and anyone working for a corporation, investing in stock, or even interacting with businesses will benefit from a basic understanding of business ethics.

This latest volume in the acclaimed Ruffin Series in Business Ethics brings together the contributions to the annual Ruffin Lecture series, in which some of the leading scholars in business ethics addressed the question: Can business, and business education, be considered one of the humanities, or is it in a class by itself? At a time when business is coming under attack for its apparent transgressions, this book illuminates the special values that inhere in the business world. Arguing all sides of the issue, the distinguished contributors include Richard DeGeorge, Ronald Green, Thomas Dunfee, Robert Solomon, Edwin Hartman, Peter French, Patricia Werhane, Clarence Walton, W. Michael Hoffman, David Fedo, Kenneth Andrews, Joanne Ciulla, Manuel Velasquez, and George Brenkert. The editors contribute an informative Introduction and an Epilogue to set the debate in its proper context.

Featuring a remarkably clear writing style, Philosophy: Asking Questions--Seeking Answers is a brief and accessible guide designed for students with no prior knowledge of the subject. Written by renowned scholars Stephen Stich and Tom Donaldson, it focuses on the key issues in Western philosophy, presenting balanced coverage of each issue and challenging students to make up their own minds. Each chapter incorporates discussion questions, key terms, a glossary, and suggestions for further readings to help make the material more understandable to novices. While comprehensive enough to be used on its own, Philosophy can also be used as a supplement to any introductory anthology.

Featuring a remarkably clear writing style, Philosophy: Asking Questions, Seeking Answers is a brief and accessible guide designed for students with no prior knowledge of the subject. Written by renowned scholars Stephen Stich and Tom Donaldson, it focuses on the key issues in Western philosophy, presenting balanced coverage of each issue and challenging students to make up their own minds. Each chapter incorporates discussion questions, key terms, a glossary, and suggestions for further readings to help make the material more understandable to novices. While comprehensive enough to be used on its own, Philosophy can also be used as a supplement to any introductory anthology.

In 1924, with great self-confidence, Hans Reichenbach wrote,It has become customary to reduce a controversy about the logical status of mathematics to a controversy about the logical status of the axioms. Nowadays one can hardly speak of a controversy any longer. The problem of the axioms of mathematics was solved by the discovery that they are definitions, that is, arbitrary stipulations...With just as much self-assurance, A.J. Ayer claimed that the truths of pure mathematics are “analytic” in the sense that each follows “simply from the definitions of the terms contained in it.” Despite the bravado of its early adherents, this position has subsequently fallen out of favor. Critics have alleged that the position was refuted by Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems, that it is obscure what “analytic” and “definition” are supposed to mean, that there are no “analytic” truths, or that the axioms cannot be definitions. True By Definition revisits this debate. Thomas Donaldson introduces the distinction between analytic and synthetic truths, and explains the controversy around this distinction. He defends a radical new position, developing an abductive, empirical case for the consistency of the basic axioms of arithmetic. The result is a thoroughgoing form of empiricism about arithmetic, on which the basic principles of arithmetic are analytic yet a posteriori. True By Definition contributes to discussions of fundamentality and metaphysical grounding, suggesting that there is a parallelism between relations of analytic entailment among sentences and relations of metaphysical ground among facts.