Philosophy 305: Philosophy of Commerce [under construction]

Please note that the following contents list is only a plan of the intended article.

My use of G1, G2 and G3 refes to my thesis that most philosophical concepts fall naturally into three groups (see Philosophy 103a, 103b and 103c).

Contents:

Introduction

Introduction: Philosophy of Commerce?

Section 1: Sorts of commerce
Section 2: Commercial disvalues
Section 3: Commercial means
Section 4: Commercial values
Section 5: The Customer
Section 6: The Company
Section 7: The Market
Section 8: Commerce and Ethics

Introduction: Philosophy of Commerce?

Section 1: Sorts of commerce

G1: Commerce between individual and company

This what most of us think of when we think of commerce. Our personal transactions with retailers of products or services.

G2: Company-company and company-state commerce

There is a realm of commerce that most of us are only dimly aware of and rarely glimpse. It is commerce between companies and between companies and various agencies of the state.

G3: Global commerce

Import and export now permeates the whole commercial spectrum. The customers of retailers occassionaly notice that their purchases come from a variety of foreign countries. Companies buy both machinery and stock from wherever in the world it is cheapest and of the required quality.

Even national branches of international companies are occasionally exported of imported when conditions favor or disfavor them.

[A Note on Terminology.

Preference. A preference is something desired by a customer or potential customer. It might be a need or a want or a whim or even a lust. The market makes no distinction between these.

Preference Satisfaction. A preference satisfaction is something that will presumably satisfy a preference. Note that this is not the same as a satisfied preference. It is something that (presumably) has the potential to satisfy a preference.

Satisfied Preference. A satisfied preference is the result of the bringing together of a preference and the appropriate preference satisfaction.]

Section 2: Commercial disvalues

G1: (a) non-satisfaction of preferences, (b) legal restriction

G2: (a) failure in co-operation, (b) failure in competition

G3: (a) inefficiency, (b) financial loss

Section 3: Commercial means

G1: The customer
G2: The company
G3: The market

Section 4: Commercial values

G1: (a) preference satisfaction, (b) legal liberty

G2: (a) successful cooperation, (b) successful competition

G3: (a) efficiency, (b) financial profit

Section 5: The customer

5a: Sorts of customer:

G1: The private individual customer

G2: The private company customer

G3: The public (state) customer

5b: Analysis of the customer

G1: Contentive aspects: the locus of preferences and of satisfied preferences,

G2a: Functional aspect: the buyer (payer of a financial premium for) and consumer of preference satisfactions,

G2b: Formal aspect: being human, or composed of humans, the customer has taken the form (in ideological terms) of a generalised mechanism for negotiating its transactions in the market,

G3a: Contextual aspect: ideological context: other customers, companies, the market,

G3b: Contextual aspect: physical context: the ecosphere.

5c. Theories of the nature of the customer

G1: The customer as citizen of the political state

G2: The customer as actual or potential company employee

G3: The customer as market component

Section 6: The Company

6a. Sorts of company

G1: One person companies
G2: Family / community companies
G3: State-transcending companies

6b. Analysis of the company

G1: Contentive aspect: locus of preference satisfactions,

G2a: Functional aspect: producer / supplier of preference satisfactions, seller of (receiver of a financial premium for) preference satisfactions,

G2b: Formal aspect: company hierarchy

primary division: shareholder/corporate

secondary division: employer/employee

tertiary division: management/labor

G3a: Contextual aspect: ideological context: resources, customers, other companies, the market,

G3b: Contextual aspect: physical context: the ecosphere.

6c. Theories of the nature of the company

Section 7: The Market

7a. Sorts of market

7b. Analysis of the market

G1: Contentive aspect: locus of the allocation of preference satisfactions,

G2a: Functional aspect: mechanism for the allocation of preference satisfactions,

G2b: Formal aspect: pending

G3a: Contextual aspect: ideological context: customer and company,

G3b: Contextual aspect: physical context: the
ecosphere.

7c. Theories of the nature of the market

Section 8: Commerce and Ethics

8a. Sorts of ethics

8b. Ethics applied to commerce

8b1: Customer ethics

8b2: Compamy ethics

8b3. Market ethics