• Work

• Feedback Cycles

• Identity flexibility and sustainable cooperation
• Reconciling stakeholder interests
• Shared responsibility and sustainable cooperation

This paper examines the moral status of collective agents such as corporations by shifting the debate from whether they can be moral agents to how robust their moral agency is under real world conditions. Existing theories have largely concentrated on the internal structure of collective agents, including decision making rules, belief states, and institutional design, while neglecting the influence of external disturbances such as systemic pressures, normative environments, and the role of individual members. Building on the contingency view of collective moral agency, the paper argues that a collective’s moral status is socially constructed and shaped through the dynamic interplay between organizational structures and the moral input of its members. It introduces the concept of robustness as a criterion for assessing whether collective agents can reliably act as members of the moral community. By identifying core and subsidiary conditions, the paper proposes a framework for evaluating how well collective agents withstand internal, structural, and systemic disruptions.

The central research question is: How robust is the moral agency of collective agents, and what conditions make them fragile or resilient in the face of disturbances? Instead of asking whether collective agents are moral agents, this paper investigates under what circumstances they can sustain that status over time. It asks how the interplay of structural design, member input, and external environments determines the stability of collective moral responsibility.

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