Business has an undeserved bad image in the media. It is not about survival of the fittest, but it has a moral role in society. The market system depends on a moral base, and there needs to be a strong individual morality for business to survive. It is difficult for the Church to supply this, since there are conflicts between capitalism and Christianity. Although moral teaching does not feature highly in corporate training, Philosophy and the Humanities could play a role here, provided they are adequately resourced.
Philosophy is of value since it helps economic man to rise above specific tasks to a general view.
Nevertheless, business already has its norms of good conduct, which philosophers could usefully comment on. The Government should maintain the breadth of the university system, and academic philosophers should emphatically assert that the professional thinker can readily contribute to the positive good of business in todays and tomorrows community. The value of philosophy in particular and the humanities in general has been firmly acknowledged in the recent government White Paper Meeting the Challenge, and in Kenneth Bakers July address to the British Academy. Philosophy as studied in Britain is the disciplined study of the framework of thought, in which we explore the basic concepts through which we categorise the world. In a Parliamentary briefing, Robert Jackson himself has said that such exploration is fundamental to the higher level study of all disciplines.