Event Details

Philip Pettit: Are Corporations Capable of Being Virtuous?

We're absolutely delighted to be hosting a webinar with Philip Pettit as part of our constitutional theory speaker series. The webinar will take place at 5pm (Alberta time) on Tuesday, February 4th, and can be viewed by registering on Zoom (see registration button on the right side of this page).

Lecture Abstract:

The call on corporations to be socially responsible — this, as distinct from being regulated into responsibility by law — demands a form of virtue from them. But are they capable of such virtue? The presentation will look briefly at the nature of virtue and the nature of the corporation and argue that in current circumstances it is not possible to expect the regular corporation to display virtue. If we want them to live up to standards of social responsibility, we can only rely on government and law.

Speakers

Philip Pettit

Professor of Politics and Human Values, Princeton University
Philip Pettit is L.S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University, where he has taught political theory and philosophy since 2002, and for a period that began in 2012-13 holds a joint position as Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, Canberra. Born and raised in Ireland, he was a lecturer in University College, Dublin, a Research Fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bradford, before moving in 1983 to the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University; there he held a professorial position jointly in Social and Political Theory and Philosophy until 2002. He works in moral and political theory and on background issues in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics. His recent single-authored books include The Common Mind (OUP 1996), Republicanism (OUP 1997), A Theory of Freedom (OUP 2001), Rules, Reasons and Norms (OUP 2002), Penser en Societe (PUF, Paris 2004), Examen a Zapatero (Temas de Hoy, Madrid 2008), Made with Words: Hobbes on Mind, Society and Politics (PUP 2008); On the People's Terms: A Republican Theory and Model of Democracy (CUP 2012); Just Freedom: A Moral Compass for a Complex World (W.W.Norton 2014) and The Robust Demands of the Good: Ethics with Attachment, Virtue and Respect (OUP 2015). His recent co-authored books include The Economy of Esteem (OUP 2004), with Geoffrey Brennan; Mind, Morality and Explanation (OUP 2004), a selection of papers with Frank Jackson and Michael Smith; A Political Philosophy in Public Life: Civic Republicanism in Zapatero's Spain (PUP 2010), with Jose Marti; and Group Agency: The Possibility, Design and Status of Corporate Agents (OUP 2011), with Christian List.

Event Date(s):

February 4, 2025, 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm

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Centre for Constitutional Studies
448D Law Centre
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2H5
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