As if Business Ethics were Possible, `within Such Limits'...

Abstract

This paper takes up some of Jacques Derrida's work on ethics, responsibility and justice in order to ask if business ethics is possible within the limits in which it currently finds itself. We begin by discussing the `ethical turn' in Derrida's recent work and then, after setting this in context with a brief discussion of Emmanuel Levinas, survey a selection of Derrida's `ethical' works. This provides the basis for a discussion of the limits of calculative and legalistic business ethics, and the broader problem of the ethics of knowing what to do. Although in this paper we do not pretend to `deconstruct' business ethics, we conclude with a discussion of the prospects of a possible future deconstruction of business ethics.