A Critique of Social Products Liability

It has been suggested that a new form of moral responsibility, labeled “social products liability,” is relevant to business ethics. In particular, this kind of responsibility might justify recent legal claims against firearm manufacturers. This paper argues that, as it has been presented, social pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sollars, Gordon G. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2003
In: Business ethics quarterly
Year: 2003, Volume: 13, Issue: 3, Pages: 381-390
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
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Summary:It has been suggested that a new form of moral responsibility, labeled “social products liability,” is relevant to business ethics. In particular, this kind of responsibility might justify recent legal claims against firearm manufacturers. This paper argues that, as it has been presented, social products liability must rest upon utilitarian considerations or on a deeper, more complete theory of moral responsibility. In the first case, a new form of responsibility seems unnecessary, since liability could be directly apportioned on utilitarian grounds. In the second case, proponents of social products liability face the tasks of presenting the more complete theory and then anchoring social products liability to it.
ISSN:2153-3326
Contains:Enthalten in: Business ethics quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5840/beq200313327