Hypernorms

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Hypernorms are a concept from Business ethics that applies to principles so fundamental that, by definition, they serve to evaluate lower-order norms, reaching to the root of what is ethical for humanity. They were first proposed Thomas Donaldson and Thomas W. Dunfee ^[1] as part of an integrative social contract model of business ethics.^[2] Donaldson and Dunfee have described hypernorms as:

principles so fundamental that they constitute norms by which all others are to be judged. Hypernorms are discernible in a convergence of religious, political and philosophical thought. An "authentic norm" is one that is generated within a community's moral free space and which satisfies the requirements of terms 1 and 2 of the macrosocial contract. Authentic norms are based upon the attitudes and behaviors of the members of their source communities. A "legitimate norm" is an authentic norm that is compatible with hypernorms.^[3]

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