- Position1 of 2›
- No, corporations shouldn't have moral responsibility
"Moral responsibility" is big business so transparently attempting to seem human-like or good while ultimately missing the entire meaning of the phrase itself. Only an individual can enact in a "moral" way, while a big company cannot possibly inhabit the inner morality of each and every one of its employees.
The argument
This argument proceeds from a definition and applies it. For something to have morals, it must be able to separate right from wrong and feel guilt when it does something wrong. Both are conditions on a mind: the first requires the capacity to make an evaluative judgement, and the second the capacity to have an experience in response to one. A corporation meets neither. It is not a sentient entity, so it does not know right from wrong and cannot feel guilt. A corporation can be described as acting, and its actions can be assessed, but the assessment is performed by people outside it; nothing within the corporation registers the difference, and there is nothing for guilt to reach in the way it reaches a person. The argument is careful about where the moral capacity actually sits. Individuals within a corporation can possess their own respective sets of morals, and they make the judgements that the corporation's conduct reflects. The moral agency is therefore present in the organisation — but it belongs to the people in it rather than to the entity, and attributing it to the entity double-counts what those individuals already supply. What follows is a claim about language. To say that a corporation has some sort of "moral responsibility" completely corrupts the definition of "moral," because it takes on humanistic qualities that are not actually present — treating as a moral subject something intrinsically tied to human emotion and ethics which possesses neither. Therefore a corporation cannot have morals; and because only a person can, this argument concludes that corporations should not have moral responsibility.
Context
For something or someone to have morals, it must have the ability to know right from wrong. Only people know right from wrong. Therefore, only people can have morals.
Premises
Counter-arguments
"Moral responsibility" does not necessarily denote humanistic moral qualities to an entire corporate entity, it just raises the individuals within that corporate structure to a higher moral standard. The people within large companies, especially those towards the top, do have morals and know right from wrong. Moral responsibility should guide them in making decisions regarding the well-being of their customers and their employees. A corporation that is morally responsible teaches its working people right from wrong.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P2] "Moral responsibility" defines the individuals within a corporation acting morally, not the entire corporate entity itself. Individuals can determine right from wrong within the corporate structure, affecting their employees and customers. [Rejecting P3] People can have morals within a corporation, hence that corporation's "moral responsibility."
Framing
Corporations are not people. They therefore cannot hold morals.