Philosophy professor headlines Centenary's Forum with consumer ethics discussion

Randolph philosophy professor David Schwartz is taking the message of consumer ethics to Shreveport, Louisiana. Tonight, Schwartz will lead a discussion at Centenary College of Louisiana on the topic of the responsibility consumers have to be informed about the ethical practices of the companies whose products they purchase.

The college invited Schwartz to speak for Centenary’s Forum, an annual event that explores social issues. In conjunction with the event, Schwartz wrote an opinion article for the Shreveport Times and asked readers to contemplate the ethical question of whether to purchase shirts made and embroidered by slaves.

Schwartz is the author of Consuming Choices: Ethics in a Global Consumer Age, which explains the ethical questions consumers face and offers a guide in making ethical choices.

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David Schwartz

The Society for Business Ethics chose to discuss Consuming Choices by David Schwartz in its “Author Meets Critic” forum at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association (Central Division). Schwartz will give a talk about the book, followed by a discussion by two distinguished ethics scholars, Alastair Norcross (University of Colorado – Boulder) and Richard F. Galvin (Texas Christian University).

Schwartz was invited to participate by a professor who had read the book and used it as a textbook. This attention to Consuming Choices is an honor to Schwartz.

“One of my goals in writing this book was to write something that would be reputable to the scholars but accessible to the non-scholars,” Schwartz said. “This is an indication that it’s reputable to the scholars and that people seem to be reading it and finding it useful.”

Consuming Choices guides readers through a discussion of the ethical implications of purchasing decisions. For several decades, business ethicists have discussed whether companies have moral obligations. Schwartz’s book argues that the real moral obligation belongs not to companies, but to their customers.

Consuming Choices was chosen as the topic
for the Society for Business Ethics' "Author
Meets Critic" forum in February.

“It’s up to the consumer to decide what they were comfortable buying,” Schwartz said. “The businesses are going to feel market pressure to change one way or another.”

He started writing Consuming Choices about food and farming, but his topics expanded to include the moral implications of environmental harm, poor working conditions, and animal cruelty in the supply chain for products we purchase.

He said people should be wary of extremely inexpensive items. “If it’s too good to be true,” then someone is being taken advantage of somewhere, Schwartz said.

While it may be impossible to know everything that happens in the creation of a product, consumers have an obligation not to be “willfully ignorant” of the moral implications of their products. Websites such as CorpWatch and The Good Guide can help people learn about how their products are made.

“I’m hoping that this gets on people’s radar and gets them thinking about this idea,” Schwartz said. “I’m fairly confident that if people just have some awareness of this issue, they’ll do fine with making these decisions.”