Contractarian Business Ethics: Credentials and Design Criteria

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 1337-1355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Wempe
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Choice Situation ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
The Social ◽  
Stakeholder Model ◽  
Practical Guidance

Contractarian business ethics (CBE) is in great vogue in the present study of corporate morality. Its stated ambition is to provide better practical guidance than the more general ethical theories of business ethics, such as Kantianism, pragmatism, utilitarianism, virtue ethics or the stakeholder model. But how good is this new trend in business ethics theorizing? This article aims to assess CBE's credentials as a social contract argument. For this purpose, it embarks on a comparative analysis of the use of the social contract model in two earlier domains: political authority and social justice. Building on this comparison, it then develops four criteria for any future CBE. To apply the social contract model properly to the domain of corporate morality, it should be: (1) self-disciplined, i.e. not aspire to results beyond what the contract model can realistically establish; (2) argumentative, i.e. provide principles that are demonstrative results of the contractarian method; (3) task-directed, i.e. it should be clear what the social contract thought-experiment is intended to model; and (4) domain-specific, i.e. the contractarian choice situation should be tailored to the defining problems of corporate morality.

Business Ethics and Extant Social Contracts

1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Dunfee
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Priority Rules ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Social Contracts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethical Norms

Extant social contracts, deriving from communities of individuals, constitute a significant source of ethical norms in business. When found consistent with general ethical theories through the application of a filtering test, these real social contracts generate prima facie duties of compliance on the part of those who expressly or impliedly consent to the terms of the social contract, and also on the part of those who take advantage of the instrumental value of the social contracts. Businesspeople typically participate in multiple communities and, as a consequence, encounter conflicting ethical norms. Priority rules can be devised to resolve such conflicts. The framework of extant social contracts merges normative and theoretical research in business ethics and specifies a domain for empirical studies.

In Defense of a Self-Disciplined, Domain-Specific Social Contract Theory of Business Ethics

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Wempe
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Domain Specificity ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
The Social

Abstract:This article sets out two central theses. Both theses primarily involve a fundamental criticism of current contractarian business ethics (CBE), but if these can be sustained, they also constitute two boundary conditions for any future contractarian theory of business ethics. The first, which I label the self-discipline thesis, claims that current CBE would gain considerably in focus if more attention were paid to the logic of the social contract argument. By this I mean the aims set by the theorist and method of reasoning by which normative conclusions are drawn in the contract model. The second, to which I refer as the domain-specificity thesis, argues that current CBE needs to be better adapted to its field of application and the specific goals which it aims to establish. I will substantiate these two theses on the basis of a comparative analysis of CBE with two earlier families of social contract theories.

Business Ethics and Extant Social Contracts

1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (01) ◽  
pp. 23-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Dunfee
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Priority Rules ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Social Contracts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethical Norms

Extant social contracts, deriving from communities of individuals, constitute a significant source of ethical norms in business. When found consistent with general ethical theories through the application of a filtering test, these real social contracts generate prima facie duties of compliance on the part of those who expressly or impliedly consent to the terms of the social contract, and also on the part of those who take advantage of the instrumental value of the social contracts. Businesspeople typically participate in multiple communities and, as a consequence, encounter conflicting ethical norms. Priority rules can be devised to resolve such conflicts. The framework of extant social contracts merges normative and theoretical research in business ethics and specifies a domain for empirical studies.

The Social Contract Model of Corporate Purpose and Responsibility

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (04) ◽  
pp. 433-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nien-hê Hsieh
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
For Profit ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Responses ◽  
The Many

ABSTRACT:Of the many developments in business ethics that Thomas Donaldson has helped pioneer, one is the application of social contract theory to address questions about the responsibilities of business actors. InCorporations and Morality, Donaldson develops one of the most sustained and comprehensive accounts that aims to justify the existence of for-profit corporations and to specify and ground their responsibilities. In order to further our understanding about the purpose and responsibilities of productive organizations, and as a contribution to the scholarship on Donaldson’s thought, this paper gathers together the critical responses to Donaldson’s account along with Donaldson’s replies to his critics. The paper argues that we would do well to continue engaging with Donaldson’s account because of its distinctive and challenging conception of the purpose and responsibilities of productive organizations, but that many of the insights to be gained come from reframing the role played by social contract theory.

Millennial Reservations

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 291-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa H. Newton
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Triple Bottom Line ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
The Social

Abstract:The decade in which the Business Ethics Quarterly has flourished has been a good one for business and business ethics, in which new guiding theories (like stakeholder theory), new interpretations of older ethical concepts (trust, virtue, and the social contract, for instance), and whole new paradigms of doing business (the Triple Bottom Line) have entered the literature. But practice has not kept up with theory, and the theoretical gains seem to be offset by terrible losses in the temperance of greed, the fostering of trustworthiness, and sensitivity to the natural environment.

scholarly journals The Theory of Social Contract and Legitimacy Today

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Neophitos Economides
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Renaissance Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Era

Abstract The theory of social contract has played - and still plays - an important role in the central stage of political philosophy. The social contract answers the question of the origin of the society. The history of the theory originates in the ancient Greece political philosophy and extends to the recent years. However, the foundation of the theory resulted in the Renaissance period through the treatises of classical contractarians Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. The manuscript describes the main arguments regarding the theory of social contract and suggests the main similarities and differences among them. Finally, the manuscript, according to the main description of the theories, suggests the main categorization of their results in legitimizing the political authority. In the final section, the article proposes the contribution of the theory of the social contract to the modern era and summarizes the positive aspects of its arguments to the legitimization of the political authority of modern states.

International Ethics within the International Social Contract

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy E. Eckert
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
International System ◽  
Choice Situation ◽  
Social Cooperation ◽  
International Ethics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Initial Choice ◽  
International Social

The social contract tradition derives its ethical force from the hypothetical agreement that parties would reach in an initial choice situation. This initial choice situation brings together a description of the circumstances of justice, various extra-contractarian moral assumptions, and an instrumental theory of rational choice. The circumstances of justice refer to the conditions that require principles of justice. These conditions include the existence of social cooperation along with moderate scarcity. In the absence of such conditions, principles of justice are either unnecessary or impossible to sustain. Social cooperation generates both benefits and burdens, and it is the allocation of those components of social cooperation that requires principles of justice. The application of the social contract to the domestic context dates back to the ancient Greeks, though their version of the contract was somewhat crude and rather one-sided in favor of state authority. Later versions of the social contract would oblige the state to provide much more to citizens in return for their allegiance. John Rawls is widely credited with resurrecting the social contract tradition in the twentieth century. His thought holds special significance for the international social contract, as he extends the contractual approach ethics into the international system where his predecessors declined to do so.

Hypothetical Consent and Political Legitimacy

1998 ◽  
pp. 232-238
Author(s):  
Cynthia Stark
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hypothetical Consent

A commonly accepted criticism of the social contract approach to justifying political authority targets the notion of hypothetical consent. Hypothetical contracts, it is argued, are not binding; therefore hypothetical consent cannot justify political authority. I argue that although hypothetical consent may not be capable of creating political obligation, it has the power to legitimate political arrangements.

Commercial Licenses as Political Contracts

2019 ◽  
pp. 201-229
Author(s):  
Katie Jarvis
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
Fiscal Autonomy ◽  
Food Retailers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Justices Of The Peace ◽  
Economic Citizenship ◽  
Fiscal Contract ◽  
The Relationship

From 1791 to 1793 and again from 1795 to 1798, the deputies taxed work through occupational licenses called the patente. This chapter reveals how the revolutionaries refracted the relationship among work, property, and autonomous citizenship through this tax. To replace the revenue generated by guild fees, the deputies created graduated tax brackets to target the wealth generated by an individual’s occupation. By exchanging fees for permissions, the patente created a fiscal contract between citizens and the state that mirrored the social contract. Legislators assessed the patente according to criteria for full citizenship including independence and immobile property. From 1796 to 1798, the patente fashioned a type of economic citizenship not predicated on gender and enabled the Dames to form a fiscal contract with the nation, unlike all male wage laborers. In patente hearings before justices of the peace, the Dames articulated their trade as autonomous work. When the deputies reorganized taxes by familial unit and exempted food retailers in 1798, the Dames lost their licenses and fiscal autonomy. The Directory simultaneously reconsolidated political authority into male heads of households.

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