Varieties of Organizational Blameworthiness

Abstract This chapter defends organizations’ blameworthiness through three different lenses: the volitionist lens, the attributivist lens, and the aretaic lens. Each lens focuses on a different aspect of a wrongful entity. The volitionist lens focuses on the will, choices, or intentions of the entity. The attributivist lens focuses on the entity’s evaluative attitudes, over which the entity might never have made a choice. The aretaic lens focuses not on what an entity chooses or values, but on what an entity is—specifically, on an entity’s character flaws or vices. The volitionist lens has been dominant in the literature on group blameworthiness; therefore, the contribution of this chapter is to demonstrate that the attributivist and aretaic lenses are just as applicable to organizations. The chapter works through each of these lenses in turn, arguing that each lens can be used to render organizations blameworthy.