If A Marketer Teaches Ethics, Is There Still A Sound? The Interdisciplinary Case

Abstract

When a marketer teaches general ethics courses, widespread ontological shock can result on campus. A case for positive paradigm expansion of all involved persons in an interdisciplinary environment is made. Suggestions for specific interdisciplinary opportunities and applications are provided. A call for interdisciplinary efforts is made and supported. Teaching outside your field is always chancy but when your terminal degree is marketing and the courses outside the area of expertise you are asked to teach are general distribution courses in ethics, cross-listed as Philosophy, it might be more than chancy, it may be ridiculous according to the received view. Reactions from colleagues in the business school may (and did) range from puzzlement to high hilarity particularly if one has been successful in business “in the real world” as was the case in this instance. Other colleagues seem to experience ontological shock as if they have suddenly found themselves in an alternate universe where “up” is “down.” This report is about doing the academically strange thing of teaching across the curriculum and enjoying it. But wait, there’s more, and even greater heresy! This will urge others in professional schools, sciences and other disciplines to consider the idea; and then do it, for all-around “wins” for all involved.