Business Ethics: The Promise of Neuroscience

Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience research portend well for furthering understanding of many of the fundamental questions in the field of business ethics, both normative and empirical. This article provides an overview of neuroscience methodology and brain structures, and explores the areas in which neuroscience research has contributed findings of value to business ethics, as well as suggesting areas for future research. Neuroscience research is especially capable of providing insight into individual reactions to ethical issues, while also raising challenging normative questions about the nature of moral responsibility, autonomy, intent, and free will. This article also provides a brief summary of the papers included in this special issue, attesting to the richness of scholarly inquiry linking neuroscience and business ethics. We conclude that neuroscience offers considerable promise to the field of business ethics, but we caution against overpromise

National Geographic : understand civil engineering differently

Our undergraduate civil engineering students have access to a rich and diverse bank of textual and graphical knowledge concerning their chosen profession. However, over a number of decades, commentators have raised concerns that our students have insufficient understanding of the role of civil engineering in society. Indeed, the call for universities to educate ‘global engineers’ emphasises the need for our students to be schooled in the humanities, in parallel with their core computational studies. Unfortunately, engineering students in particular, are not accustomed to regular exploratory reading. This paper considers the use of the National Geographic magazine as a means to ignite our students’ curiosity with the world around them. The results from a pilot study and a content analysis of a number of editions from over a decade shows that this periodical regularly carries themes directly concerning the impact of civil engineering in society, be it political , financial environmental , social or ecological