Corporate Responsibility: Reasons, Principles and Rationality

This paper sets out a series of arguments about the responsibilities of firms. Each of the arguments is currently under development. The paper suggests how an analysis of these issues might work. I begin with the claim that firms, and the individuals within them, have reasons for acting. I discuss the idea that these reasons appeal to principles, and discuss what these principles might involve. I suggest that these principles set a boundary of the firm as a social activity. I consider the ways in which this boundary may be affected by the global context of firms and by appeals to corporate responsibilities in addition to operating legally and making a financial return. I suggest that an idea of public reasoning may be useful for this analysis. I also discuss the idea that reasons for acting may involve both rationality and an appeal to views about ethical significance.