Abstract

A truism is something which is perceived to be not only true, but obviously true-so obvious as to warrant no investigation into it, and so, obvious that it can be taken as an unquestionable starting point, or assumption, from which to proceed further. In this essay, I want to call attention to a few not-so-true truisms about ethics, ethics consulting, and ethics training in business. Most of the truisms that I want to touch on have acquired particularly high status: "axioms" perhaps, on which aspects of business ethics consulting could be based; or "baselines," which set the parameters, or limits, on discussions in particular areas of concern.