Hollywood adaptations of great novels tend to unnerve devoted readers. The effort seems hubristic and slightly profane, akin to painting a second Sistine Chapel or adding a chorus to King Lear. Perfection, by definition, can't be improved upon, and it seems suspect even to try.

So it is that a...

Accomplished leaders are like master craftsmen: their first principles are best practices, the felt wisdom of experience and reflection.

Take Benjamin Franklin. In his Autobiography, he describes 13 precepts for self-improvement he coined as a young man. They include Resolution ("Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what...

If past is prologue, Mitt Romney will reaffirm tonight that having a superior command of the facts is a temptation and a blessing.

Throughout the Republican primaries, Romney conveyed a mastery of policy minutiae that allowed him to parry and thrust with quickness and precision. Such dexterity helped him...

The pleasure of teaching is being taught -- a lesson I learn every time I teach business ethics.

It's a good thing, too, for unlike my peers at law and medical school, I have no established canon of ethics to teach my MBAs. Instead, I ask them to make...

It has been almost a month since Greg Smith's letter of resignation sent Goldman Sachs into full PR panic mode. Since then, the firm has completed its great "muppet" sweep, Mr. Smith has secured a blockbuster book deal, and Lloyd Blankfein has found himself...

What do you get a man for his 300th birthday? For David Hume, the University of Edinburgh has decided to pay him the kind of tribute it withheld during his lifetime, when the most important philosopher of the mid-18th century was denied the Chair of Ethics...

I recently suggested that Justice Sam Alito's lonely dissent in the Phelps First Amendment case seemed to embody the "empathy standard" for judicial review, the very standard that Republicans warned about in the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Over the weekend, Emily Bazelon...

For almost two years now, Republicans have issued dire warnings about an urgent threat to the Constitution emanating from the Supreme Court. What is this menace? A Justice's capacity for empathy, what Senator Lindsay Graham has called the "absurd, dangerous standard" by which President Obama has promised to evaluate Supreme...

What would Adam Smith make of the Wall Street bonuses?

I was recently asked this by a student in my business ethics class. The author of The Wealth of Nations was a renowned moral philosopher long before he became interested corn laws and supply curves, and we spend considerable...

Though the Supreme Court has a rotating line-up, snazzy uniforms, and the occasional wide-eyed rookie, the start of a new session still lacks the pageantry of opening day. This year was no different, though with the rise of the Tea Party, one might have expected otherwise. The Supreme Court building...

Nobody doubted that Elena Kagan would be confirmed to the Supreme Court, certainly not by the time her nomination reached the Senate floor. Much like the main event at WrestleMania, the machinations of major players, the careful choreography, and the last minute double-crossing (Ben Nelson!) proved far more interesting than...

Last week, we learned that it is easier to fire a four star general than it is to plug a hole in the ground a mile under the sea. We also learned that Barack Obama's leadership style is still a work in progress.

This would seem bewildering to anyone...