ABSTRACT
As the debate between shareholder and stakeholder views of corporate purpose tumbles on, it’s time Aristotle had his say. From the law’s point of view, corporations straddle the ontological line between people and artifacts. For Aristotle, people have fixed ends, or teloi, endowed by their nature that distinguishes right from wrong ways of being. Artifacts, by contrast, have proper functions endowed by their creators that define when they are working well. As people created by law, corporations are uniquely situated-they are people whose telos can change if/when law’s purpose for them changes. This Aristotelian perspective reorients the debate over corporate purpose. Instead of asking what corporate purpose is, both sides should ask what purpose the law should have in recognizing corporations as a distinct mode of conducting business.
Diamantis, Mihailis, Aristotle on Corporate Purpose (June 7, 2025), 28 Journal of Markets & Morality (forthcoming 2026).
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