  Several problems in business ethics are attempts to come to grips with Smith’s view. Discussions of the role of the corporation in society and the very purpose of a corporation as a social institution are examples. It is not disputed that the purpose of a for-profit corporation is to make a profit for stockholders, but there is an intense debate about whether maximizing stockholder profits is the sole legitimate purpose of corporations—as Milton Friedman and others have argued—and whether truly beneficent corporate conduct is justifiable. This question is normative, but Smith also raises questions of moral psychology: Is it reasonable to expect benevolent acts from members of the business community? Does beneficence have any place in the world of business as we know it?