The corporation as a constructed ethical agent: Monism, pluralism and options for reform

What is to be done? How do we choose between possibilities? What and how much must we sacrifice to what? There is, it seems to me, no clear reply. This article extends Sir Isaiah Berlins Value Pluralism to argue that the for-profit corporation functions as a powerful, constructed ethical agent. This constructed ethical agency helps to explain both the remarkable success of the corporate form, and its pronounced antisocial tendencies. In particular, this article contends that in its current configuration corporate ethical agency precludes other-regarding behaviour. Facilitating more responsible corporate conduct is, therefore, a matter of reconfiguring corporate ethical agency to instill more pluralist sensibilities. Two changes in particular are necessary: jettisoning the duty to act bona fide in the best interests of the corporation; and creating a permission for corporations to engage in profit sacrificing behaviour.