Andreas Suchanek

• In 1970, Milton Friedman defined his now famous viewpoint that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits”. This position is still prominent and can be seen as a strong criticizm of most of the currently held views on Corporate Social Responsibility. In this paper, I argue that Friedman’s view has a point, but is, none the less, one-sided. Inappropriate forms of pursuing profits can become a threat to the foundations of a free society to the same degree as inappropriate moral demands for corporate social responsibility which were – rightly – criticized by Friedman.