The Social Contract Theory and Corporation Moral Obligation

Husein Inusah and Peter Sena Gawu

E-LOGOS, 2021, vol. 2021, issue 1, 4-16

Abstract: Contractual moralists, such as Bowie and Donaldson, have argued that contractual agreement explains why corporations have a moral obligation towards the society in which they operate. They argue that a corporation's moral obligation emerges from a hypothetical social contract that establishes its legitimacy to operate in society. Their assumption appears to indicate a logically necessary relationship between a corporation's moral obligation and contractual agreement that establishes the corporation. We argue that there is no such relationship: a corporation's moral obligation does not necessarily emerge from a social contract. We suggest that instead of assuming that a corporation's moral obligation emerges from a social contract, it should be said that a corporation's moral obligation is sustained by a social contract. This helps answer the question of why corporations have a moral obligation towards the society where they operate in a better light.

Keywords: Morality; Contractual Agreement; Social Contract; Moral Obligation; Rational Choice; Incorporated Corporations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.480

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