-
Home
- Business ethics
- Business ethics case studies
- Biomatrix case exercises -
Moral responsibility
-
Moral responsibility is a more nuanced concept. While legal responsibility concentrates on establishing minimum standards of acceptable conduct, moral responsibility can move from the minimum all the way to the exemplary. While legal responsibility looks to where individuals can be punished for untoward actions, moral responsibility considers societal responses that range from social ostracism to recognition and praise for conduct that is outstanding. Roughly speaking, moral responsibility is a much more flexible and wide ranging concept and practice.
- Moral responsibility begins with causality; some thing (an agent, thing, or event) cause some other thing to occur.
Causal responsibility is essential for establishing criminal responsibility; one cannot blame an punish an individual for something that that individual did not cause. It is also important for establishing moral responsibility ranging all the way from blame to praise.
-
Vicarious responsibility departs somewhat from causal responsibility. A parent might be responsible for paying for the window broken by his or her child. In other forms of vicarious responsibility, one person (a principle) authorizes another (a designated agent) to act on his or her behalf. A private individual may hire an engineer to design and supervise the building of a house. The private individual is the principle who originates the act; it expresses his or her interest or intention. The agent is responsible for the execution of the action originated by the principle; he or she executes the designs of the principle. A special problem can arise here. How can the principle ensure that the agent remains faithful to his or her interests? Often agents are deviated by conflicting interests, that is, interests that come in from the outside and adversely effect the ability of the agent to skillfully and professionally carry out the interests of the principle.
-
Capacity responsibility sets forth the conditions under which an action can be imputed or attributed to an agent for the purpose assigning moral praise and blame. The ethicists, F.H. Bradley, argues that there are three: selfsameness, moral sense, and ownership. More on these below.
- Causal and capacity responsibility are focused on the past.
Role Responsibility looks to the future and outlines those actions or tasks one is obliged to perform as a part of his or her social, occupational, or professional role. Parents are (role) responsible for looking after their childrens' health. Engineer's are (role) responsible for holding paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Individuals are answerable when they fail to carry out their role responsibilities.
- Finally, there is what Goodpaster and Velazquez describe as the
aretaic sense of responsibility or responsibility as a virtue or excellence. (Arete in Greek signifies excellence.) Calling an individual responsible in this sense is to call him or her trustworthy or reliable in an exemplary sense. This applies to those who carry out their responsibilities in an exemplary manner (an outstanding parent) and go beyond the moral minimum in doing so.
Source:
OpenStax, Business ethics. OpenStax CNX. Sep 04, 2013 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col10491/1.11
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.
