Feminist Ethics as Moral Grounding for Stakeholder Theory

1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian K. Burton ◽  
Craig P. Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
General Principle ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Business Decisions ◽  
Stakeholder Approach ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Missing Element ◽  
Moral Grounding

AbstractStakeholder theory, as a method of management based on morals and behavior, must be grounded by a theory of ethics. However, traditional ethics of justice and rights cannot completely ground the theory. Following and expanding on the work of Wicks, Gilbert, and Freeman (1994), we believe that feminist ethics, invoking principles of caring, provides the missing element that allows moral theory to ground the stakeholder approach to management. Examples are given to support the suggested general principle for making business decisions under feminist moral theory.

Reflections on the Practical Relevance of Feminist Thought to Business

1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Wicks
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Practical Relevance ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Feminist Thought ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Moral Grounding

AbstractI appreciate the opportunity to comment on two recent papers (Burton and Dunn, “Feminist Ethics as Moral Grounding for Stakeholder Theory” and Dobson, “The Feminine Firm: A Comment”—both in the April 1996 edition of BEQ) which deal with the subject of feminism in business ethics. Both raise important issues for how we think about the relevance and potential contribution of feminist thought to this area of research.

Reconsidering Ontology’s Relevance

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Metz
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
General Principle ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Right Action ◽  
Kwame Nkrumah ◽  
Moral Claims

This chapter and the next are methodological, focused on how to justify a moral theory. Many African philosophers believe that ethical claims follow immediately from ‘external’, metaphysical ones about human nature that must be established first. For example, Kwame Nkrumah maintains that an egalitarian ethic follows directly from a prior physicalist ontology, and Kwame Gyekye contends that his ‘moderate communitarian’ morality is derived from a certain conception of the self. Chapter 2 shows how these and similar rationales fail to clear the ‘is/ought gap’, as it is known in Western meta-ethics, and also how strategies one might use to bridge the gap do not work. It concludes that a more suitable way to defend a moral theory is to argue ‘internally’ to morality by appealing to intuitions, i.e., by determining which comparatively more controversial general principle of right action easily entails and best explains less controversial particular moral claims.

Feminist and Medical Ethics: Two Different Approaches to Contextual Ethics

Hypatia ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Sherwin
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Ethical Analysis ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Narrative Approaches ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Contextual Ethics ◽  
Political Understanding

Feminist ethics and medical ethics are critical of contemporary moral theory in several similar respects. There is a shared sense of frustration with, the level of abstraction and generality that characterizes traditional philosophic work in ethics and a common commitment to including contextual details and allowing room for the personal aspects of relationships in ethical analysis. This paper explores the ways in which context is appealed to in feminist and medical ethics, the sort of details that should be included in the recommended narrative approaches to ethical problems, and the difference it makes to our ethical deliberations if we add an explicitly feminist political analysis to our discussion of context. It is claimed that an analysis of gender is needed for feminist medical ethics and that this requires a certain degree of generality, i. e. a political understanding of context.

Moral Progress for Evolved Rational Creatures

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-238
Author(s):  
William J. FitzPatrick
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Belief ◽  
Adaptive Plasticity ◽  
Moral Progress ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Naturalistic Account ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Way

Abstract Allen Buchanan and Russell Powell have developed a rich ‘biocultural theory’ of the nature and causes of moral progress (and regress) for human beings conceived as evolved rational creatures with a nature characterized by ‘adaptive plasticity’. They characterize their theory as a thoroughly naturalistic account of moral progress, while bracketing various questions in moral theory and metaethics in favor of focusing on a certain range of more scientifically tractable questions under some stipulated moral and metaethical assumptions. While I am very much in agreement with the substance of their project, I wish to query and raise some difficulties for the way it is framed, particularly in connection with the claim of naturalism. While their project is clearly naturalistic in certain senses, it is far from clear that it is so in others that are of particular interest in moral philosophy, and these issues need to be more carefully sorted out. For everything that has been argued in the book, the theory on offer may be only a naturalistic component of a larger theory that must ultimately be non-naturalistic in order to deliver the robust sort of account that is desired. Indeed, there are significant metaethical reasons for believing this to be the case. Moreover, if it turns out that some of the assumptions upon which their theory relies require a non-naturalist metaethics (positing irreducibly evaluative or normative properties and facts) then even the part of the theory that might have seemed most obviously naturalistic, i.e., the explanation of how changes in moral belief and behavior have come about, may actually require some appeal to non-naturalistic elements in the end.

An Invitation to Feminist Ethics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde Lindemann
Keyword(s):  
Women's Studies ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Women’S Studies ◽  
Globalized Economy

An Invitation to Feminist Ethics is a hospitable approach to the study of feminist moral theory and practice. Designed to be small enough to be used as a supplement to other books, it also provides the theoretical depth necessary for stand-alone use in courses in feminist ethics, feminist philosophy, women’s studies, or other courses where feminism is studied. The Overviews section surveys feminist ethical theory and the Close-ups section looks at three topics—bioethics, violence, and the globalized economy—that help students to put the theories presented in the Overviews section to good use.

Feminism, Friendship, and Philosophy

2002 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 63-82
Author(s):  
Diane Jeske
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Philosophical Ethics

In recent years, more and more philosophical work has come to be done under the rubric of ‘feminist philosophy.’ In particular, more and more work in philosophical ethics has come to be identified by both those who produce it and those who read it as within the domain of ‘feminist ethics.’ As a philosophical ethicist and a feminist, the question naturally arises as to whether I do feminist ethics. The question seems particularly natural in my case, because a great deal of my research has focussed on the nature of intimate relationships, the types of reasons to which such relationships give rise, and how moral theory ought to accommodate such relationships and their attendant reasons. Intimacy, after all, has been one of the areas to which feminist ethicists have paid a great deal of attention in their attempts to carve out a peculiarly’ feminist’ ethics, arguing that traditional or canonical theories need, at the very least, a great deal of revision if they are to respond appropriately to the ‘data’ acquired as the result of the inclusion and responsiveness to the experience of women.

scholarly journals A Theoretical Review on Corporate Tax Avoidance: Shareholder Approach versus Stakeholder Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-88
Author(s):  
Nirmala Devi Mohanadas ◽  
Abdullah Sallehhuddin Abdullah Salim ◽  
Suganthi Ramasamy
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Agency Theory ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Legitimacy Theory ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Stakeholder Approach ◽  
Corporate Social

Objective - Although corporate tax avoidance is a widely discussed topic in the literature, conflicts do emerge when it is analyzed through the context of primary corporate duty. Should companies, in managing their taxes, solely honor their obligation to increase shareholders' wealth or should they cater to the interests of all their stakeholders? Such conflicts are especially evident in the inconsistent empirical observations on how corporate tax avoidance relate to corporate social responsibility (CSR), which makes the dearth of theoretical analysis on this issue even more conspicuous. Taking into account the socio-political nature and human elements in corporate tax avoidance, theoretical analyses from social sciences' perspectives are becoming markedly crucial. Methodology/Technique – This paper critically reviews the extant literature for discussions on how corporate tax avoidance is influenced by the dissenting approaches towards primary corporate duty. Findings – By allowing an insight into how people act and the world they live in, these analyses form a constructive tool to rationalize and foretell managerial actions towards shareholders and stakeholders alike. Novelty – It focuses particularly on the theories that are widely used to lend supports for such approaches. These theories are the agency theory, stakeholder theory, and legitimacy theory. Type of Paper - Review. Keywords: Corporate Tax Avoidance; Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); Theoretical Analysis; Shareholder Approach; Stakeholder Approach; Agency Theory; Stakeholder Theory; Legitimacy Theory. JEL Classification: G30, G32, G39.

Morality as a Social Phenomenon

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-104
Author(s):  
R. Jay Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Moral Rightness ◽  
Moral Standards ◽  
Normative Significance ◽  
Interpersonal Expectations ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Normative Implications

Chapter 2 explored the normative significance of moral rightness for the agent. This chapter, shifts the focus from the agent to those potentially affected by what the agent does. A leading idea here will be that interpersonal morality apparently has normative significance not only for the agent, but for other parties as well, and that it is an important but neglected task for moral theory to make sense of this aspect of it. Moral standards of right and wrong purport to define constraints on agency; but they also purport to provide a basis for interpersonal accountability relations between individuals, articulating what we can expect of each other as each of us pursues our private ends. Disregard of such interpersonal expectations by an agent thus has normative implications for other parties, giving them reason to adjust their attitudes and behavior in response, in the characteristic register of blame.

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