On the Other Hand...

Sometimes the greatest enemy of ethics is "ethics", says Joel Marks.

That is, [Adam] Smith held that things work out best for the society as a whole when each person seeks his own profit.

In effect, the professional ethics movement among businesspersons is what I call the Other Hand Theory, namely, that by conducting business ethically, profit will result (as if by an invisible hand). As noted, there is even a plausible mechanism to account for this, so that this "hand" need not seem mysterious at all, since some level of trust seems obviously necessary to conduct most human affairs, business included.

Philosophy Now June/July 2005