Integrative Social Contract Theory (ISCT)

The term integrative social contract theory (ISCT) was coined by Tom Donaldson and Tom Dunfee, two business ethicists at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who, as a philosopher and a legal scholar, respectively, elaborated a methodology for developing norms for corporate morality on the basis of a social contract model. As in the work of classical contract theorists such as Hobbes and Locke, who used the contract model to specify the principles for the legitimate exercise of power by the state, ISCT seeks to specify the principles for socially responsible corporate conduct on the basis of a social contract model especially adapted for this purpose.

An explicit goal of the ISCT project was to improve on the practical guidance of general ethical theories ...