v6n5: Peterson on Comer and Schwartz on Moral and Intellectual Courage

From Intellectual Courage to Moral Courage by Eric M. Peterson

A COMMENTARY ON D. R Comer and M. Schwartz (2015), “Highlighting Moral Courage in the Business Ethics Course,” J Bus Ethics 146(3): 703–723, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2919-3

Abstract:
Comer and Schwartz (2015) argue that the business ethics course should aim to cultivate moral courage within our students. Essential to their argument is the use of fictional exemplars of moral courage to motivate our students. I argue that the classroom, even when supplemented by good fiction, is not the right context by which to practice moral courage—the habituation of moral courage requires a context of risk. I suggest a virtue that can be practiced in the classroom—intellectual courage. By aiming at this virtue, we will also get the virtue of moral courage.

To download the full PDF, click here: Peterson on Comer and Schwartz

Eric Peterson is Visiting Assistant Professor of Business Ethics and Society at the Heider College of Business, Creighton University. His research interests include imagination, philosophy of religion, and ethics.  He is currently serving as the 2018/2019 philosophy program chair for the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and he serves as the managing editor for The Junkyard: a blog devoted to the study of imagination.