The Poker Analogy (Carr)

The Argument:

Bluffing is morally permissible when playing poker.
Running a business is like playing poker.
Bluffing is morally permissible when running a business.

Behavior in poker, according to Carr, should be judged not by ordinary morality, but by "game ethics." So also, according to Carr, should behavior in business.

We need to ask:

  1. whether ordinary morality is inapplicable to poker games (and to what extent) [premise 1], and
  2. if so, what about poker games accounts for this, and
  3. whether business is similar to poker in the ways mentioned in (2) [premise 2].


Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 1 June 2006