Adelphia Scandal Deontology
Deontology and the Categorical Imperative Applied to the Adelphia Communications Scandal
In July of 2002, five officials of the Adelphia cable-television company were arrested on the charge of gross corporate fraud conducted by members of the Rigas family. The events which transpired during the Adelphia scandal were some of the most egregious to date with an estimated "$100 million, hiding more than $2 billion in debt the family incured, and lying to the public about Adelphia 's operations and financial condition (Grant and Nuzum, 2004, p. A1)." During the course of the proceedings it was determined that the Rigas family had been plundering corporate funds in a manner very reminiscent of the Enron accounting scandal one year prior. Both of these companies acted in a decidedly un-deontological manner raising the needs of the self-interested few over the desire to act in a fair and equitable manner. It is their decision to act in this egotistical manner which ultimately brought them to this unfortunate outcome. Before analyzing what the Adelphia officers had done wrong, we should first define the boundaries with which we are judging them by. First, let us examine what it means to act in a deontological manner. Deontology is "the normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action 's adherence to a rule or rules" ("Ethics-virtue", …show more content…
Grant, P. and Nuzum, C. (2004), "Adelphia founder and one son are found guilty", The Wall Street Journal, July 9
2. Virtue Ethics. (n.d.) In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved January 20, 2013, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/
3. Kant, Immanuel. 1780. "Preface". In The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics.Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbot
4. Egotism. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 20, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egotism
5. Grant, P. (2004), "Adelphia insider tells of culture of lies at firm", The Wall Street Journal, May
In July of 2002, five officials of the Adelphia cable-television company were arrested on the charge of gross corporate fraud conducted by members of the Rigas family. The events which transpired during the Adelphia scandal were some of the most egregious to date with an estimated "$100 million, hiding more than $2 billion in debt the family incured, and lying to the public about Adelphia 's operations and financial condition (Grant and Nuzum, 2004, p. A1)." During the course of the proceedings it was determined that the Rigas family had been plundering corporate funds in a manner very reminiscent of the Enron accounting scandal one year prior. Both of these companies acted in a decidedly un-deontological manner raising the needs of the self-interested few over the desire to act in a fair and equitable manner. It is their decision to act in this egotistical manner which ultimately brought them to this unfortunate outcome. Before analyzing what the Adelphia officers had done wrong, we should first define the boundaries with which we are judging them by. First, let us examine what it means to act in a deontological manner. Deontology is "the normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action 's adherence to a rule or rules" ("Ethics-virtue", …show more content…
Grant, P. and Nuzum, C. (2004), "Adelphia founder and one son are found guilty", The Wall Street Journal, July 9
2. Virtue Ethics. (n.d.) In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved January 20, 2013, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/
3. Kant, Immanuel. 1780. "Preface". In The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics.Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbot
4. Egotism. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 20, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egotism
5. Grant, P. (2004), "Adelphia insider tells of culture of lies at firm", The Wall Street Journal, May