Readings

A set of related study questions are available for the readings and viewings in this course.

SES # READINGS AND VIEWINGS
Course Introduction: Wealth, Values, and Human Nature
1

Buy at Amazon Hobbes, Thomas. "Of the Natural Condition of Mankind As Concerning Their Felicity, And Misery." Chapters XIII–XIV in Leviathan. Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780192834980. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Locke, John. "Of Property." Chapter V in The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration (Dover Thrift Editions). Dover Publications, 2002, pp. 25–37 and 48–51. ISBN: 9780486424644.
Personal and Professional Practice
2

Badaracco, Joseph, and Jerry Useem. "Kathryn McNeil (A)." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9–394–111, February 10, 1994.

Badaracco, Joseph, and Jerry Useem. "Kathryn McNeil (B)." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9–394–112, February 10, 1994.
3

Werhane, Patricia H. "A Note on Moral Imagination." Darden Case No. UVA-E-0114.

Badaracco, Joseph. "The Discipline of Building Character." Harvard Business Review, January 2006.

Buy at Amazon Mencius. Selections in Mencius. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016. ISBN: 9781536867558.
4

Khurana, Rakesh, and Nitin Nohria. "It's Time to Make Management a True Profession." Harvard Business Review 86, no. 10 (2008): 70–77.

Sharlet, Jeff. "MBA Ethics Oath." August 12, 2009. The Daily Show with John Stewart.
5

Pinker, Steven. "The Moral Instinct." The New York Times Magazine, January 2008.

Panel on Business and the Professions

Panelists:
  • Rishi Dean, Product and Technology, Sittercity
  • Monica Guzman, Fellow, Nieman Foundation
  • James O'Connell, President, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program
Corporate Social Responsibility
6

Buy at Amazon Stout, Lynn. Chapters 1, 2, and 8 in The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2012. ISBN: 9781605098135. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Bakan, Joel. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. Free Press, 2005, pp. 56–59. ISBN: 9780743247467.

Buy at Amazon Schelling, Thomas C. "The Marketplace Is No Excuse." In Choice and Consequence: Perspectives of an Errant Economist. Harvard University Press, 1984, pp. 53–56. [Preview with Google Books]
7

Hafrey, Leigh, and Cate Reavis. "Corporate Personhood, Business Leadership, and the U.S. Presidential Election of 2012." MIT Sloan Case: 11–134.

Inside Job. Directed by Charles Ferguson. Color, 105 min. 2010.
8

Buy at Amazon Plato. Part II, Book II in The Republic. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016, pp. 55–61. ISBN: 9781535499576.

Buy at Amazon Aristotle. Chapters 9 and 10 in The Politics. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780192831095.

Sharp Paine, Lynn."Corporate Purpose and Responsibility." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9–396–201. December 8, 1995.
9

Elias, Jaan, and J. Gregory Dees. "The Normative Foundations of Business." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9–897–012. June 10, 1997.

Buy at Amazon Frank, Robert. "What Price the Moral High Ground?" In What Price the Moral High Ground? Ethical Dilemmas in Competitive Environments. Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 71–91.
Democracy, Meritocracy, Prosperity
10

Buy at Amazon Thoreau, H. D. "Economy." Chapter 1 in Walden and Civil Disobedience. Penguin Classics, 1983, pp. 45-64 and 112-123. ISBN: 9780140390445.

Buy at Amazon Skinner, B. F. Walden Two. Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporation, 2005, pp. 246-260. ISBN: 9780872207783.

Buy at Amazon Grandin, Greg. Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City. Picador, 2010, pp. 6-12, 21-26, 37-42 and 365-372. ISBN: 9780312429621.

Heller, Nathan. "Google's Monastic Vision for the Future of Work." The NewYorker, June 13, 2015.
11

Zakaria, Fareed. "A Conversation with Lee Kuan Yew." Foreign Affairs, March / April 1994.

Buy at Amazon Confucius. Selections in The Analects. Penguin Classics, 1979. ISBN: 9780140443486.
12

Buy at Amazon Tocqueville, Alexis de. Chapters II, IV-VI, and X in Democracy in America, Volume II. Alfred P. Knopf, 1945. ISBN: 9781330253267.

Handy, Charles. "Tocqueville Revisited: The Meaning of American Prosperity." Harvard Business School Reprint R0101C.

Yunus, Muhammad. "Commencement Address." MIT, June 6, 2008.
Conclusion: Next Steps
13 Rich, Nathaniel. "Aspen and the End of Snow." Men's Journal, Feburary 2014.