What is the point of blaming corporations?

Child, Russell Ben (2022) What is the point of blaming corporations? PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

Abstract

This thesis argues that corporations are blameworthy moral agents. It advances the view that blaming corporations for their wrongdoing has an instrumental value insofar as blaming practices incentivise actions that are socially valuable, and disincentivise actions that are socially costly. The true value of blaming corporations is to be found in its non-instrumental value, however. This is to do with maintaining the dignity and self-respect of those who are doing the blaming. Blaming corporations is a vital way in which we hold powerful and destructive entities to account. Blaming corporations takes them, what they do and ourselves seriously. This thesis adopts a non-standard approach to the moral responsibility question by connecting the question of moral responsibility to the power of corporations as much as to their agential capacities. It also adopts a non-standard approach to the agency question by raising important questions about the rational capacity paradigm which underpins traditional accounts of individual and corporate moral responsibility. A key feature of corporations is their long horizon. This thesis discusses the role of blaming practices in addressing their role in historic acts of injustice. Consequently this thesis’s historical texture provides a unique perspective on this topic. It also considers whether we can forgive corporations for their wrongdoing in a way that goes beyond what is normally found in the relevant literature.

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