Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:09:11.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Social Equation: Freedom and its Limits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Charles M. Horvath
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Western business philosophy is rooted in the concepts of free enterprise, free markets, free choice. Yet freedom has its limits. Nature itself imposes constraints. In the state of nature each business must try to accomplish everything autonomously and ward off the attacks of rivals. These activities cost the business a great deal of freedom. The social contract emerges from such anarchy to increase the freedom available to all members of society. It does so by setting limits on individual freedom which actually increase the overall amount of freedom available within the system. The Social Equation presents a relational model of this contract to show how overall freedom is increased in a state of society. In so doing, the obligations which society places on businesses to produce beneficial goods and services is developed. Next, the complex relationship between socially enforced constraints and social moral constraints is examined, showing that social moral constraints increase freedom more than do enforced constraints. This work concludes with proposed uses of the Social Equation as a heuristic for business ethics.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1995 , pp. 329 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Argyris, C. 1957. Personality and Organization: The Conflict Between System and the Individual. New York: Harper, & Brothers.Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1962. The Politics of Aristotle (Sinclair, T. A., trans.). Baltimore, MD: Penguin.Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1985. Nicomachean Ethics (Irwin, T., trans.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Barnard, C. I. 1968. The Functions of the Executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Becker, L. C. 1992. Social Contract. In Becker, L. C. (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Ethics, Vol 2: 1170–1177. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Berlin, I. 1970. Four Essays on Liberty. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carr, A. 1968. Is Business Bluffing Ethical? Harvard Business Review, 46 (Jan/Feb): 143–150.Google Scholar
Deci, E. L. 1975. Intrinsic Motivation. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
DeTocqueville, A. 1984. Democracy in America (Heffner, R. D., Ed.). New York: Mentor.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1982. Corporations & Morality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1990. Social Contracts and Corporations: A Reply to Hodapp. Journal of Business Ethics, 9: 133–138.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. & Dunfee, T. W. 1993. Connecting the Two Worlds of Business Ethics: Integrative Social Contract Theory. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference of the International Association for Business and Society. 254–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etzioni, A. 1961. Complex Organizations. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Etzioni, A. 1988. The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Fischer, J. M. 1992. Freedom and Determinism. In Becker, L. C. (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Ethics, Vol 1: 385–388. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. 1982. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
French, P. A. 1979. The Corporation As a Moral Person. American Philosophical Quarterly, 3: 207–15.Google Scholar
Galbraith, J. K. 1984. The Affluent Society (4th ed.). New York: Mentor.Google Scholar
Gauthier, D. 1986. Morals By Agreement. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Glendon, M. A. 1991. Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Heilbroner, R. L. 1989. Reflections on the Triumph of Capitalism. The New Yorker (Jan 23), 64:98–109.Google Scholar
Hobbes, T. 1968. Leviathan (ed. by Macpherson, C. B.). London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Hodapp, P. F. 1990. Can There Be a Social Contract With Business? Journal of Business Ethics, 9: 127–132.Google Scholar
Holmes, O. W. 1897. The Path of the Law. Harvard Law Review, 10: 457–478.Google Scholar
Jones, P. d’A. 1968. The Robber Barons Revisited. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company.Google Scholar
Kant, I. 1959. Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (trans. by Beck, L. W.). New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Klein, S. 1988. Is a Moral Organization Possible? Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 7(1): 51–73.Google Scholar
Locke, J. 1980. Second Treatise of Government (ed. by Macpherson, C. B.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1984. After Virtue (2nd ed.). Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, J. J. (Ed.). 1990. Beyond Self-interest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McGregor, D. 1960. The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K. 1940. Bureaucratic Structure and Personality. Social Forces, 18: 560–568.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. 1957. Utilitarianism (Piest, O., Ed.). New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. 1978. On Liberty (Rapaport, E., Ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Mitchell, T. R., & Scott, W. G. 1990. America’s Problems and Needed Reforms: Confronting the Ethic of Personal Advantage. Academy of Management Executive, 4: 23–35.Google Scholar
Mulligan, T. M. 1993. The Moral Mission of Business. In Beauchamp, T. L. & Bowie, N. E.Ethical Theory and Business (4th ed.). 65–75. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Patterson, O. 1991. Freedom: Volume I: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Peters, T. J., & Waterman, R. H. 1982. In Search of Excellence: Lessons From America’s Best Run Companies. New York: Harper, & Row.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rich, D. Z. 1989. The Economics of Welfare: A Contemporary Analysis. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Rousseau, J. J. 1968. The Social Contract (Cranston, M., trans.). New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1984. Resources, Values and Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1987. On Ethics & Economics. New York: Basil Blackwell, Inc.Google Scholar
Solomon, R. C. 1993. Ethics and Excellence: Cooperation and Integrity in Business. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Velasquez, M. G. 1983. Why Corporations Are Not Morally Responsible For Anything They Do. Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 2(3): 1–18.Google Scholar