A Philosophical Reflection about Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

This article discusses the philosophical foundations of business ethics and corporate social responsibility, from a critical conception of the approaches commonly used, their assumptions and their justifications. The paper presents a theoretical and philosophical reflection, developed in order to question and appoint alternative solutions to the weaknesses of the most common justifications of corporate social responsibility. These discussions, according to the argumentative construction of this article, culminates in the proposition of four elements to be considered in a stronger debate about the theme: the ethical personality of organizations; ethics community; the liberty; and the identity between ethics and interest. These elements bring in themselves a different agenda for the debate on responsible business, corporate responsibility, business ethics and social ethics. By considering the ideas proposed in this article, management professionals and students, as well as researchers from the general areas of management will have differentiated and complementary references to the pre-existing ones to a understanding better a more consistent and well justified definition of an ethical and socially responsible company, going beyond current and sometimes fragile justifications which are, sometimes, social and academically discredited, as is the case with justification of the strategies of social responsibility from the argument that it generates profits for companies.