The Conversable, Responsible Corporation

24 Pages Posted: 10 Feb 2025

See all articles by Philip N. Pettit

Philip N. Pettit

Princeton University; Australian National University (ANU) - Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS)

Date Written: March 01, 2017

Abstract

Corporations are a species of corporate agents and, like other such agents, are conversable entities: they can speak for themselves, under any of a variety of arrangements, and ensure that they live up to their words. But all conversable agents are fit to be held responsible for how well they do in living up to their words, whether the words are explicitly uttered or implied in the expectations they endorse on the part of others. And so corporations too fall under this requirement. In particular, they are fit to be taken to be held responsible for various failures of performance, although not in a way that rules out the possibility of simultaneously holding individuals responsible for playing their corporate part.

Keywords: responsibility, conversability, corporation, corporate agents, person, spokesperson, blame, crime

Suggested Citation

Pettit, Philip N., The Conversable, Responsible Corporation
(March 01, 2017). https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198738534.003.0002, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5084542 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5084542

Philip N. Pettit (Contact Author)

Princeton University ( email )

305 Marx Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544-1012
United States
609-258-4759 (Phone)
609-258-1110 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.princeton.edu/~ppettit/

Australian National University (ANU) - Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS) ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200
Australia

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