No abstract

This study is a metaphysical essay defining Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), through a series of Business Ethics texts covering the subject. The selected texts are written by Argentinean and Spanish authors rooted in the Social Teaching of the Church. The objective is to search the foundation of CSR as a moral obligation. The study begins with a logical approach, followed by a metaphysical one before engaging in ethical aspects. The meaning of «responsibility» and «CSR» concepts are defined. Regarding the concept’s metaphysical approach, the study is framed under Aristotelian categories of relationship and quality. From an ethical point of view, CSR is understood as a component of justice as virtue, and what specifically characterizes it is the acknowledgement of one’s own concurrence in the growth and development of the company’s relationship with its stakeholders. The question is posed whether the company, as such, acts in a moral manner –parallel to personal moral agency—. A delimitation of CSR actions is proposed.

Resumen En este trabajo se ofrece una respuesta a la cuestión del estatus ontológico de la empresa basada en la noción de relación de la filosofía aristotélico-tomista. Para ello se analizan argumentos individualistas y colectivistas, y argumentos de autores que proponen superar esa antinomia mediante la noción de relacionalidad. Dado que dichos autores se quedan en el plano fenoménico, se ofrece un análisis que provee un adecuado fundamento metafísico a las interacciones que se dan entre los integrantes de la empresa y conforman una realidad distinta a ellos, pero que inhiere en ellos. La empresa se presenta como una realidad relacional y sinérgica ordenada por una estructura, una cultura y líderes, que modifica a sus miembros en habilidades, capacidades y hábitos compartidos. Palabras clave: estatus ontológico de la empresa, agencia moral de la empresa, filosofía aristotélico-tomista, relación real, relación de razón, ente relacional.

The initial question about the ontological status of the corporation precedes the question about its moral status. The Aristotelian causes are constitutive principles of reality that infl uence each other reciprocally and which we apply to the enterprise to design its anatomy’s ontological structure. The corporation’s material cause is the capability its members have to associate. The formal intrinsic cause is its organization for producing and trading the goods man needs. The extrinsic formal or exemplary cause is the shared mental model. And the corporation’s fi nal cause is its mission. And the common good is the mediate end that gives it sense. The corporation is considered as an entity possessing a certain unity based in the order embodied in the plexus of internal-external relations of the corporation.