Moral Disagreements in Business: An Exploratory Introduction

140 Pages·2019·2.058 MB·English

by  Marian Eabrasu

CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance
Series Editors: Samuel O. Idowu · René Schmidpeter
Marian Eabrasu
Moral
Disagreements
in Business
An Exploratory Introduction
CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance
Serieseditors
SamuelO.Idowu,LondonMetropolitanUniversity,London,UnitedKingdom
RenéSchmidpeter,CologneBusinessSchool,Germany
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/11565
Marian Eabrasu
Moral Disagreements
in Business
An Exploratory Introduction
MarianEabrasu
SouthChampagneBusinessSchool
Troyes,France
ISSN2196-7075 ISSN2196-7083 (electronic)
CSR,Sustainability,Ethics&Governance
ISBN978-3-319-97009-7 ISBN978-3-319-97010-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97010-3
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2018952907
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2019
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthe
materialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,
broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation
storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology
nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication
doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant
protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
bookarebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublishernortheauthorsor
theeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforany
errorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictional
claimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations.
ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG
Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland
This is the most refreshing book on business
ethics to appear in a long time. By focusing
on ‘personhood,’ ‘ownership,’ ‘harm,’ and
‘consent,’ Eabrasu brings a new level of
clarity and insight into disagreements on
business ethics issues. Rather than reaching
for an artificial utopian resolution, He
embraces the challenge of explaining why
we disagree. This is a must-read for serious
business ethics scholars.
Nicholas Capaldi
Loyola University New Orleans
Legendre-Soulé Distinguished Chair in
Business Ethics
Eabrasu’sskilfulexplorationofthefourmoral
bottom lines in business effectively dispels any
doubt over the ethical dimensions of the
commercial world and provides a moral
compass for any student of business or
practitioner in the field. The wide selection of
illustrative cases highlights the practical
relevance and applicability of moral theory to
the business realm. A very accessible and
valuable contribution I recommend highly.
Martin Brueckner
Senior Lecturer
School of Business and Governance
Murdoch University
for Louise,
without critique our minds atrophy
Acknowledgments
Thisbookwasinspiredbythethesisdefendedformyhabilitation1attheUniversity
of Angers (France). Naturally, I am grateful to Professor Guido Hülsmann, who
sponsoredandsupervisedthehabilitation,forencouragingmetodevelopthecentral
idea of this thesis and to create a book from it (notwithstanding his personal
disagreement with some of its implications). I also owe a significant debt to the
membersofthedefensecommitteeforshowingmerelevantissuesthatneededmore
carefulandcoherentargumentationinthemanuscriptsubmittedforthehabilitation
defense. Christian Rauscher, Senior Editor at Springer, played a crucial role in
motivating me not to abandon the idea of making the book, and especially in
concretizingit.
The bulk of appreciation for the valuable comments on this book goes to
hundreds of students (too many to be mentioned individually) at the South Cham-
pagneBusinessSchool(SCBS,Troyes,France),wherepartsofitweredeliveredas
lecturesandcasestudiesinbusinessethicsclassesoverthepasteightyears.Manyof
these arguments and examples were refined on the basis of their comments, reac-
tions, and disagreements. These thoughts were often prolonged in a witty and
insightful manner with Gabriel Giménez-Roche and Pierre Bentata, two SCBS
facultymembers,onthetrainbackfromTroyestoParis.
TheprocessofwritingthisbookbenefitedfromtheactivesupportofSCBS,andit
wascompletedduringavisitingresearchfellowshipattheFacultyofEconomicsand
Business of the Gadjah Mada University (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) during the aca-
demic year 2017–2018. The final version was improved by the copy-editing of
Lydia Wanstall, who greatly helped me not only to translate my ideas into plain
Englishbutalsotoreducethenumberofinconsistenciesinthebook.
1Habilitationàdirigerdesrecherches(aFrenchstatelicenseforsupervisingandassessingPhD
research).
ix
x Acknowledgments
Lastbutnotleast,IremainforeverindebtedtoDelphineforofferingacontinuous
and discreet intellectual framework in which complex thoughts can be discussed
familiarly. Numerous choices related to specific formulations and examples men-
tionedinthisbookweremadethankstoourcasualdiscussions.
Troyes,France MarianEabrasu
April2018
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 MoralBottomLines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 MoralOptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 TheChallengeofRelativism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 TheMoralBottomLinesinBusiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 Personhood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1 PersonhoodandBeyond. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.2 CorporatePersonhood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.3 StakeholderPersonhood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4 Ownership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.1 Commodities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.2 TheSphereofPrivateProperty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.3 LegitimacyandFairnessofOwnership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5 HarmandConsent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.1 Harm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.2 Consent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.3 InformedConsent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6 Conclusion:Let’sStartFromFour. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
SubjectIndex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
xi