glass house philosopher / notebook 2 Monday, 2nd May 2005
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICAL DIALOGUE
by Geoffrey Klempner
[Synopsis for Prague College Open Lecture Series]
It is easy to gain the impression that more is being written about the question of corporate social responsibility today than any other topic in business ethics.
Directors and managers seeking help in this area are deluged by well-meaning advice, much of it contradictory or impossible to put into practice.
I believe that the current state of debate is one of deep confusion about fundamentals:
Can there be collective responsibility about anything? Can the ethical responsibility of any group of persons, however constituted, amount to more than the sum of the responsibilities of the individuals which constitute it? If so, how?
How can we reconcile the traditional ethical idea of unconditional respect for the other with the limited obligations that hold between players in the business arena? How can a person be, at one and the same time, a moral agent and a competitor on the business stage who must either win — or lose?
And what about the obligations of the players to those on the sidelines, whose views were never consulted yet whose lives may be blighted by the collateral damage? This is the core of the question of corporate social responsibility.
Answers to these questions will require rethinking the very notion of ethics. I will argue that ethics is not a set of rigid rules or precepts, or a way of calculating the 'best' consequences, but rather an open-ended commitment to engaging in dialogue. The issue of social responsibility will provide the most challenging test of this conception.
© Geoffrey Klempner 2005