PHI 2397 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Product Recall, Moral Hazard, Stakeholder Management
4 Jul 2018
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Text: French, “Corporate Moral Agency”, pp. 258-263.
Argument: A theory that accepts corporations as members of the moral community, of equal standing with
the traditionally acknowledged residents - human beings
-Argue that corporations should be treated as moral persons and they can have whatever
privileges, rights, and duties that in normal course of affairs, accorded to moral persons.
What is necessary for moral agency(actions)?
-Responsibility - accountable
-intention
-Having reasons for action
To what extent is a corp like a human being
(Pg 258. French argues the we should treat corps as human beings)
There are 2 ways when something is a person, they can be responsible.
1. the individual is responsible for something, it causes something that happened
2. the notion of accountability, the cause of whatever went wrong is expected to give an account for
their actions.
Responsibility relationship: can be established through hiring someone, contracts.
●As human beings we haven’t made a contract on moral responsibilities. It's taken and given that
we treat each other with moral respect. If ive done something to harm you, I can't delegate moral
responsibility, I cant say go talk to my friend for what I did.
Pg 259, key terms introduced:
1. if someone is going to be held responsible for something he has to be a cause or must have
intended the action (you have an intention behind your action).
2. An agent is someone capable of acting, and generally acting freely (animals might not be
considered agents, humans would be considered agents. People with disability wouldn’t be
considered agents).
So can we treat corps to have this kind of intention? If we try to say the corps can have their responsibility
reduced b/c people running the corp intend the actions. If you say that, then you lose distinction b/w the
corp and the mob.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Argument: a theory that accepts corporations as members of the moral community, of equal standing with the traditionally acknowledged residents - human beings. Argue that corporations should be treated as moral persons and they can have whatever privileges, rights, and duties that in normal course of affairs, accorded to moral persons. To what extent is a corp like a human being (pg 258. French argues the we should treat corps as human beings) There are 2 ways when something is a person, they can be responsible. 2. the individual is responsible for something, it causes something that happened the notion of accountability, the cause of whatever went wrong is expected to give an account for their actions. Responsibility relationship: can be established through hiring someone, contracts. As human beings we haven"t made a contract on moral responsibilities. It"s taken and given that we treat each other with moral respect.
