Business and the Common Good Minor

BES 30792/BES 30795 

(meets WKCD)

What is the role of business in a just and humane society? Many of you are about to dedicate your lives to business, and the rest of you will work, in one way or another, with business. Yet many people believe that business is a morally suspicious activity, a suspicion evident in the common belief that business people need to “give back” to society. Is business an activity for which one must atone? Are people right to be suspicious of business? This course is designed to engage ideas from the Catholic tradition with perspectives drawn from moral philosophy, business, and economics. We will engage issues of faith and normativity both critically and constructively. Students will consider competing positions on faith and normative questions, will reflect on (or discover elements of) their own faith or non-faith, and will describe the extent to which they believe various claims are supported by faith or reason. This course responds to Pope John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus (1991) and Pope Francis’s Laudato Si (2015), which called on Catholic education to “safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic ‘human ecology'” (Centesimus Annus, 38).

BES 20702

This course is intended to be a second-level theology course that introduces fundamental principles of Catholic moral theology and Catholic Social Teaching, as oriented specifically for those preparing to enter the business world. As such, students will be encouraged to think in theological categories about business and ethics and to appreciate how these categories bring the light of faith, in unity with the insights of human reason, to bear on the purpose of business and the possibility of virtuous engagement in this profession within a just and humane society.

BES 30310 (meets WRIT)

This gateway seminar for the Minor in Business and the Common Good will be limited to 24 Mendoza College students, with priority given to students intending to pursue the minor. The seminar focuses on the place of wealth and commerce in a well-ordered life, both for the individual and the community. Among other topics, the course takes a special interest in the rich Catholic tradition of reflection on these topics, especially the Catholic social teaching relevant to business that has emerged in the last two centuries.

Students in the minor are required to complete six additional credits from a curated list of courses aligned with the intellectual mission of the Minor. This may include a combination of 3-credit and 1.5-credit courses. The selection of approved courses will vary each semester to reflect the evolving focus of the program.