Abstract
If we read the central message of Caritas in Veritate (CV) through the lens of contemporary business ethics—and the encyclical does seem to invite such a reading (CV 40–41, and 45–47)—there is first of all a diagnosis of a crisis. Then, we are offered a response to the diagnosis: charity in truth, “the principle around which the Church’s social doctrine turns, a principle that takes on practical form in the criteria that govern moral action.” (CV 6) In business ethics, the norms of personal and (especially) corporate responsibility are the natural correlates to “the criteria that govern moral action.” Using this as a point of departure, I propose to relate some recent scholarship in business ethics to the message of CV—with the suggestion that there is significant convergence. I argue, further, that the encyclical breaks new ground with its suggestion that, at the center of our moral thinking in business ethics lies a logic of contribution or gift. I discuss Benedict’s understanding of the crisis, and his exhortation to reach beyond conventional interpretations of corporate responsibility, under the following four headings: Diagnosing a Crisis, Institutionalizing Conscience, A Tripartite View of Corporate Responsibility, and Comprehensive Moral Thinking.
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Notes
This and other encyclical letters mentioned here are available online in www.vatican.va.
The use of “man” and “men” in a gender-neutral way continues to be the convention in encyclical letters.
Paul VI indicates that the essential quality of “authentic” development is that it must be “integral, that is, it has to promote the good of every man and of the whole man.” (1967, p. 14, cf CV 18).
Benedict writes: “What the Church's social doctrine has always sustained, on the basis of its vision of man and society, is corroborated today by the dynamics of globalization.” (CV 39).
See Goodpaster (2007a) where fixation, rationalization, and detachment are described and developed.
“In every cognitive process, truth is not something that we produce; it is always found, or better, received.” (CV 34) Later we are warned “While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human.” (CV 75).
Alexis de Tocqueville marveled in the mid-nineteenth Century at the American cultural tendency to multiply “voluntary associations” in response to various social needs—associations that are neither public sector nor private sector. See de Tocqueville 2000, Part Two, Chap. 5, pp. 489–492).
Also see Goodpaster (2007b), Chaps. 2 and 4. Harvard’s Lynn Sharp Paine concurs: “A company, as a moral actor in society, has commitments, values, and responsibilities, such as duties to its lenders or contractual obligations to its customers that are distinct from those of its individual members. These corporate responsibilities survive even when a company’s individual members and agents change.” (2003, p. 145).
Caritas in Veritate calls this pursuit “the institutional path—we might also call it the political path—of charity, no less excellent and effective than the kind of charity which encounters the neighbor directly, outside the institutional mediation of the polis.” (CV 7).
Handy also affirms: “We cannot escape the fundamental question, whom and what is a business for? The answer once seemed clear, but no longer. The terms of business have changed. Ownership has been replaced by investment, and a company’s assets are increasingly found in its people, not in its buildings and machinery. In light of this transformation, we need to rethink our assumptions about the purpose of business.” (2002, p. 51).
See Paul’s Letter to the Romans, 2:14 ff. (Bible). For an extended discussion of conscience, both theologically and philosophically, see Ratzinger (1991). Ratzinger is today Pope Benedict XVI.
I have argued more fully elsewhere that conventional appeals to “stakeholder thinking” are useful, but insufficient for an adequate account of corporate conscience (Goodpaster 2009).
See CV 34, CV 40, CV 51, CV 61, and CV 64–67 for examples of moral critique applied to stakeholder groups, such as consumers, employees, investors, managers, and the environment.
“Of itself, an economic system does not possess criteria for correctly distinguishing new and higher forms of satisfying human needs from artificial new needs which hinder the formation of a mature personality. Thus, a great deal of educational and cultural work is urgently needed, including the education of consumers in the responsible use of their power of choice, the formation of a strong sense of responsibility among producers and among people in the mass media in particular, as well as the necessary intervention by public authorities.” (John Paul II 1991, p. 36).
Benedict cites Paul VI in Populorum Progressio: “The ultimate goal is a full-bodied humanism. And does this not mean the fulfillment of the whole man and of every man? A narrow humanism, closed in on itself and not open to the values of the spirit and to God who is their source, could achieve apparent success, for man can set about organizing terrestrial realities without God.” (Emphasis added) (Paul VI 1967, p. 14).
“Ought categorically” implies “can”—but “ought conditionally” simply implies “can try.”
“In an increasingly globalized society, the common good and the effort to obtain it cannot fail to assume the dimensions of the whole human family, that is to say, the community of peoples and nations, in such a way as to shape the earthly city in unity and peace, rendering it to some degree an anticipation and a prefiguration of the undivided city of God.” (CV 7).
Definitions within Caritas in Veritate: “Subsidiarity is first and foremost a form of assistance to the human person via the autonomy of intermediate bodies. Such assistance is offered when individuals or groups are unable to accomplish something on their own, and it is always designed to achieve their emancipation, because it fosters freedom and participation through assumption of responsibility.” (CV 57) “Solidarity is first and foremost a sense of responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to everyone.” (CV 38) [It is clear from the context that solidarity is meant to include responsibility of developed countries for less developed countries.].
Laying a responsibility with the magnitude of authentic human development at the feet of corporations surely requires expanding (through collaboration) the co-responsible parties.
“The risk for our time is that the de facto interdependence of people and nations is not matched by ethical interaction of consciences and minds that would give rise to truly human development. Only in charity, illumined by the light of reason and faith, is it possible to pursue development goals that possess a more humane and humanizing value.” (CV 9).
“[The Church] has a public role over and above her charitable and educational activities: all the energy she brings to the advancement of humanity and of universal fraternity is manifested when she is able to operate in a climate of freedom. In not a few cases, that freedom is impeded by prohibitions and persecutions, or it is limited when the Church's public presence is reduced to her charitable activities alone.” (CV 11).
In the case of private or closely–held firms, the analogue might be preoccupation by management with the interests of the controlling group or family.
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Goodpaster, K.E. Goods That are Truly Good and Services that Truly Serve: Reflections on “Caritas in Veritate”. J Bus Ethics 100 (Suppl 1), 9–16 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1183-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1183-4