Phillip English NPHI 2610 Argument Analyses In Corporations, People and Truth, University of Notre Dame Philosophy professor

Gary Gutting argues that corporations are not entities guided by the morals which humans value in a democratic society. In particular, he shows that corporations serve to obstruct the democratic value of Truth. This argument deals with issues effecting contemporary sociopolitical debate in the United States. In August of 2011, republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sparked controversy by stating, Corporations are people, my friend. In September, a populist movement called Occupy Wall St. began an ongoing series of actions to express outrage over the general state of US socio-political policy and economic climate. Occupy Wall St. quickly gained popularity and influenced actions across the globe becoming known as The Occupy Movement. One of the prominent attitudes expressed by Occupy is the general distrust of corporations, and disparagement of the role they play in democratic society. Guttings argument provides a criteria by which a democratic society may appropriately judge the value of a corporation in relation to moral standing, and thereby assess the validity of their trust judgments. In this way, he proves the attitude of Occupy toward corporations as appropriate not on grounds of what a corporation is but rather what a corporation values Framed within this contemporary climate of general mistrust of

Phillip English NPHI 2610 Argument Analyses corporations by the American Populace, and political debate about the legitimacy of Corporate Personhood, Gutting makes a distinction between his argument and this more prevalent debate. By first touching on the issue of corporate personhood and briefly spelling out his argument for (by dint of legal recognition and composition of people) and decidedly against (based on its inability to operate in a human moral emotional capacity) its legitimacy, he removes the argument from the ontological (that is, having to do with the notion of being) field so that he may forward claims based on value categories. Here follows the fundamental mechanism of Guttings argument: Truth is a value essential to a democratic society. No entity that adheres to any value that leads to the obscuration of truth is an entity that operates with values essential to democratic society. Corporations are, in fact, entities that possess a value that leads to the obscuration of truth; therefore corporations are not entities that operate with values essential to democratic society. Corporations in this sense are clarified as Large, for-profit, publicly owned corporations. Their values in opposition to democratic socio-morality are adduced in the following chain: Corporations exist as profit-making instruments for their shareholders. The fact that corporations are not inherently evil and may in-fact make positive economic contributions to society is arbitrary because of their devotion to generating shareholder profit. If shareholder profit is

Phillip English NPHI 2610 Argument Analyses threatened in the face of upholding a moral value, then a corporation will not uphold a moral value. Furthermore, because a democratic society operates under the assumption that the individual citizen can assess their voting decisions based on an informed view of reality, truth is an essential value to democracy. Because corporate advertising is a communication commonly believed to alter perception of a product or service based not on its actual value but rather emotional response to specific media, corporations serve to obfuscate truth. Lobbying practice evidences an inherent conflict between corporate values and truth-values. As opposed to advocacy groups that lobby for values truly held by their comprising members, Corporations lobby for change in policies based on their relation to profit. For these reasons it is clear that, though a corporation is not incapable of operating within the system of values essential to democratic society, they possess a value (that of shareholder profit) that supersedes democratic values. This value has lead to the obscuration of truth, and therefore the argument is deductively valid. One could then make the case that the Occupy movement has an appropriate complaint against the nature of corporations in our society. This argument is only sound in as much as the premises are true. One could object that Morals and Truth are concepts ill defined and

Phillip English NPHI 2610 Argument Analyses metaphysical at best. One could also object to the fact that truth may not actually be a value essential to democracy. If truth is not an essential democratic value, and corporations operate on principles, which may obstruct truth, there is no evidence that corporations do not adhere to democratic values. One flaw that I find in Guttings argument is that he doesnt give many examples of how a democracy preserves truth. He does make claims supporting the argument that certain actors within American democracy make decisions based on principles contrary to their selfinterest. However, if these actors are capable of presenting their principles in a dishonest way, or if they present their decision-making process in a dishonest fashion, it denigrates the strength of his argument