In this article, I aim to clarify some key issues in the ongoing debate about the relationship between Rawlsian political philosophy and business ethics. First, I discuss precisely what we ought to be asking when we consider whether corporations are part of the “basic structure of society.” I suggest that the relevant questions have been mischaracterized in much of the existing debate, and that some key distinctions have been overlooked. I then argue that although Rawlsian theory’s potential implications for business ethics are more extensive than some have suggested, the nature of the concern that we ought to have about the effects of corporate behavior on individuals’ economic and social conditions should lead us to reject the view that corporations are bound by principles of justice only if, and insofar as, they are part of the basic structure.

在本文中，我旨在澄清正在进行的关于罗尔斯政治哲学与商业道德之间关系的辩论中的一些关键问题。首先，我精确地讨论了当我们考虑公司是否属于“社会基本结构”时应该问的问题。我建议在现有的许多辩论中，有关的问题都被误解为特征，而一些关键的区别却被忽略了。然后我认为，尽管罗尔斯理论对商业道德的潜在影响比某些人所建议的更为广泛，但我们应该对公司行为对个人经济和社会状况的影响所产生的关注的性质应导致我们拒绝这一观点。公司只有在其是基本结构的一部分的情况下，才受正义原则的约束。