Morality and Profit

The Typology of a Troubled Relationship

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is the application of David Welch’s typology of the four modalities in the relationship between morality and national interests to the relationship between morality and profit in the debate between the stockholder and stakeholder approaches to corporate social responsibility. The paper attempts to apply a typology from one branch of applied ethics (ethics in foreign affairs) to another (corporate social responsibility). The critical finding of the paper is that the relationship between morality and profit in corporate social responsibility is more varied than in the existing literature, and more instructive as to how businesses actually understand their values and place in society.