How Can I Become a Responsible Subject? Towards a Practice-Based Ethics of Responsiveness

• Published in: Journal of business ethics Vol. 90; no. 2; pp. 265 - 277
• Main Authors: Loacker, Bernadette, Muhr, Sara Louise
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.12.2009; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Series: Journal of Business Ethics
• Subjects: Business Administration; Business and Management; Business Ethics; Codes; Corporate responsibility; Discourse ethics; Economics and Business; Education; Ekonomi och näringsliv; Ethical behavior; Ethical codes; Ethics; ethics of practice; Företagsekonomi; giving account; limits of responsibility; Management; Moral judgment; Morality; Organization theory; Philosophy; Quality of Life Research; responsiveness; Samhällsvetenskap; Self; Social ethics; Social responsibility; Social Sciences; subjectification; Subjectivity; limits of responsibility; giving account; subjectification; ethics of practice; responsiveness
• ISSN: 0167-4544; 1573-0697; 1573-0697
• DOI: 10.1007/s10551-009-0041-0

Approaches to business ethics can be roughly divided into two streams: 'codes of behavior' and 'forms of subjectification', with code-oriented approaches clearly dominating the field. Through an elaboration of poststructuralist approaches to moral philosophy, this paper questions the emphasis on codes of behaviour and, thus, the conceptions of the moral and responsible subject that are inherent in rule-based approaches. As a consequence of this critique, the concept of a practice-based 'ethics of responsiveness' in which ethics is never final but rather always 'to come', is investigated. In such an approach the ethical self is understood as being continuously constituted within power/knowledge relations. Following this line, we ask how one can become a responsible subject while also acknowledging certain limits of full responsibility. We thereby explore responsibility as a considered but unconditional openness in response to the other.