ABSTRACTS
5TH INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHY CONFERENCE
“ETHICS IN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPHERES: ANCIENT GREEK AND MODERN PERSPECTIVES”
5o ΔΙΕΘΝΕΣ ΣΥΝΕΔΡΙΟ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑΣ
«Η ΗΘΙΚΗ ΣΤΟ ΔΗΜΟΣΙΟ ΚΑΙ ΙΔΙΩΤΙΚΟ ΒΙΟ ΥΠΟ ΤΟ ΠΡΙΣΜΑ TΗΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΑΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΝΕΩΤΕΡΗΣ ΔΙΑΝΟΗΣΗΣ
ABSTRACTS
ABSTRACTS
Sophia Boudouri (Philosophy, Athens; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Τhe global ecological good and the corporate responsibility
Public concern for the environment has grown increasingly over the last years, due to the currently undergoing record-breaking changes of the climate (e.g. the polar ice fast melting) which can result in the general deterioration of earth’s biosphere. According to the recent scientific reports it is almost certain that this dramatic change is correlated with industrial emissions of greenhouse gases. This state of affairs manifests a real danger for the earth and humanity and it calls for immediate action to confront the serious ecological problems. Every stakeholder should collaboratively participate in this endeavour and not adopt an indifferent stance or a ‘free-riding’ kind of behavior. It is obvious that the corporate entities should primarily accept their own responsibility since they can cause pollution. In fact, more than ever before, there is a pressing demand for corporations, especially the large and multinational ones by virtue of their magnitude and large effects on society and environment, to engage in responsible environmental business practices. The conception of corporations as merely economic entities seems to be modified and become gradually transformed into a view that places corporations on a broader economic, social and particularly environmental context. This means that beyond pushing short-term financial objectives, corporations should undertake efforts related to complex social and moral problems, and activities that promote the common good, and especially the global common good given that the majority of corporate entities operate and do their business in a global context.
Environmental concern and caring for the ecological global good seems that it has become a strategic issue for corporations, since the ‘social atmosphere’, that is in favour of environmental protection, obliges them not only to stay competitive, but also, in order to ensure their viability, to adopt policies and actions friendly to the environment.
In this paper, taking into consideration the current situation, I will attempt to address the following issues:
1) Is this trend, i.e. the promotion and implementation of environmental initiatives and policies followed by corporations, positive and useful? How did this trend emerge and what would happen if it stopped?
2) Is public awareness and publicity vital to the environmental protection (or not) and to what extent?
3) Is there a need for a general theory and moral philosophy for the effective protection of the environment and how is this theory connected to the ecological global good?
Το οικουμενικό οικολογικό αγαθό και η εταιρική ευθύνη
Το κοινό και δημόσιο ενδιαφέρον έχει αυξηθεί πολύ τα τελευταία χρόνια εξ αιτίας της ταχύτητας των μεταβολών που συμβαίνουν στο κλίμα (όπως, π.χ., είναι η τήξη των πάγων στους πόλους της Γης), πράγμα που οδηγεί σε χειροτέρευση της βιόσφαιρας της Γης. Σύμφωνα με τα επίσημα στοιχεία είναι σχεδόν βέβαιο ότι αυτή η κατάσταση συνδέεται με τις βιομηχανικές εκπομπές αερίων που δημιουργούν το φαινόμενο του θερμοκηπίου. Είναι λοιπόν προφανής ο κίνδυνος για τη Γη και την ανθρωπότητα και αυτό καθιστά επιτακτική την ανάγκη για λήψη μέτρων, προκειμένου να αντιμετωπισθούν τα σοβαρά οικολογικά προβλήματα.
Προς το σκοπό αυτό κάθε άνθρωπος ή μέτοχος (εταιρικός ή μη) που ενεργεί και δρα πάνω στη Γη πρέπει να αναλάβει τις ευθύνες του και να μην υιοθετήσει μια στάση λαθρεπιβάτη (free rider). Μεγαλύτερη βέβαια είναι η ευθύνη των επιχειρήσεων, επειδή αυτές ρυπαίνουν περισσότερο το περιβάλλον, αφού άλλωστε δρουν σε ευρύτατα πολυεθνικά πλαίσια. Την ευθύνη αυτή οφείλουν να την αναλάβουν και να μη βλέπουν πλέον ως τον μόνο και κύριο στόχο τους το κοντόφθαλμο κέρδος, αλλά, έχοντας φωτεινή αντίληψη για τα πράγματα, να σκέπτονται το τι είναι εκείνο που ωφελεί το περιβάλλον οικουμενικά. Πράγματι ορισμένες επιχειρήσεις, ένεκα της δημόσιας κοινωνικής πίεσης που ασκούν οι καταναλωτές, φαίνεται ότι έχουν αλλάξει τακτική και ενεργούν έτσι ώστε τα προϊόντα τους να έχουν την ετικέτα ότι είναι φιλικά προς το περιβάλλον. Σήμερα πάντως συζητείται κατά πόσον η τακτική αυτή μπορεί να έχει διάρκεια αν δεν βασισθεί σε μια καλά θεμελιωμένη στρατηγική.
Κατά την άποψή μου μια τέτοια θεμελίωση είναι αναγκαία και συνάπτεται προς το κοινωνικό και ηθικό αίτημα για την προστασία του περιβάλλοντος και προς τη θεωρητική και φιλοσοφική ηθική θέση ότι το περιβάλλον πρέπει να νοείται ως το κατ’ εξοχήν οικολογικό οικουμενικό αγαθό.
Konstantine Boudouris (Philosophy, University of Athens; kboud7 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
The Ethics of Labour: Competitiveness and Ethics. Special Reference
to Hesiod’s Works and Days
In this paper I will make reference to Hesiod’s (8th century B.C.) ethical ideas about labour, competitiveness (rivalry) and economic activity in connection with the state of affairs in the contemporary world.
To this effect I will especially try to elucidate the following questions:
1. What is the socio-political and enterprising framework of Hesiod’s era within which human creativity has been expressed through labour and what is happening today?
2. What was the form of economic activity then (i.e. in Hesiod’s time and in periods after him) and what form do we have today?
3. In what way did Hesiod understand the ethical framework through which human creativity is expressed by work and what is going on today?
4. What is the purpose of labour and why labour as such is the one of the main constitutive principles of political society?
5. What does Hesiod mean by proclaiming Dike (Justice) the supreme ethical principle of political society and how is Justice globally comprehended today?
6. Is there any kind of general purpose which respects and enables human creativity, industriousness and virtuous life apart from individual happiness or maybe the well-being, or the good, of political society takes precedence?
7. How could we give meaning to our Being and just life through honest work today and what could this mean for political societies of the 21st century?
What becomes clear through analysis and relating comments of Hesiod’s thought is the value of poets’ and socio-political philosophers’ ideas even today, within the free and competitive society in which we live, regardless of reasonable changes that could be noticed.
Taking this as our starting and main point, reference to the ancient Greek thought and philosophy is of the utmost importance for elucidation of problems of individual and public ethics, which are the subject of this Conference.
Η ηθική της εργασίας : Ανταγωνισμός και ηθική. Ειδική αναφορά στο έργο του Ησιόδου.
Στην Ανακοίνωσή μου θα αναφερθώ στις ηθικές επίνοιες του Ησιόδου (8ος αιών π.Χ.) σχετικά με την εργασία, τον ανταγωνισμό (άμιλλα) και την οικονομική δραστηριότητα συνδέοντας αυτές με την κατάσταση των πραγμάτων στο σύγχρονο κόσμο.
Ειδικότερα θα επιχειρήσω να διασαφήσω τα ακόλουθα ερωτήματα :
1. Ποιό είναι το κοινωνικοπολιτικό, επιχειρηματικό πλαίσιο εντός του οποίου εκδιπλώνεται η ανθρώπινη δημιουργικότητα διά της εργασίας στην εποχή του Ησιόδου και τί συμβαίνει σήμερα;
2. Ποιά είναι η μορφή της οικονομικής δραστηριότητας άλλοτε (δηλαδή επί της εποχής του Ησιόδου και μετ’ αυτόν) αλλά και σήμερα;
3. Πώς ο Ησίοδος αντιλαμβάνεται το ηθικό πλαίσιο εντός του οποίου εκδιπλώνεται η δημιουργικότητα του ανθρώπου διά της εργασίας και τί γίνεται σήμερα;
4. Ποιος είναι ο σκοπός του εργάζεσθαι και γιατί η εργασία αποτελεί την κύρια δομική, συστατική αρχή της πολιτικής κοινωνίας;
5. Τί εννοεί ο Ησίοδος όταν ανακηρύττει την Δίκη (δικαιοσύνη) ως την υψίστη ηθική αρχή της πολιτικής κοινωνίας και ποια είναι σήμερα η αντίληψη για τη δικαιοσύνη σε οικουμενικό πλαίσιο;
6. Υπάρχει κάποιος γενικός σκοπός που καταξιώνει τη δημιουργικότητα και την εργατικότητα του ανθρώπου και τη δίκαιη ζωή του, ξέχωρα από την ατομική ευδαιμονία του, ή μήπως το αγαθό της πολιτικής κοινωνίας έχει προτεραιότητα;
7. Πώς μπορούμε σήμερα να δώσουμε νόημα στο είναι μας διά της τιμίας εργασίας και του δίκαιου βίου μας και τί τούτο σημαίνει για τις πολιτικές κοινωνίες του 21ου αιώνα;
Όπως θα φανή από την ανάλυση και τον συναφή σχολιασμό των απόψεων του Ησιόδου, οι επίνοιες του Ασκραίου ποιητή και κοινωνικοπολιτικού φιλοσόφου έχουν και σήμερα αξία μέσα στην ελεύθερη ανταγωνιστική κοινωνία που ζούμε, παρά τις εύλογες διαφοροποιήσεις που παρατηρούνται.
Από την άποψη αυτή βλέποντας τα πράγματα, η αναφορά μας στη ελληνική διανόηση, και μάλιστα των αρχαϊκών χρόνων, έχει μεγάλη σημασία για τη διασάφηση προβλημάτων της ατομικής και δημόσιας ηθικής με την οποία ασχολείται το παρόν Συνέδριο.
Michael Cloete (Philosophy, University of South Africa; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Plato and the modern African State: Some thoughts on the question of justice.
The influence of the Platonic metaphysical tradition on the development of modern Western political institutions, and the modern state in particular has been quite significant. The influence of the modern Western state on the formation of the modern African state has been no less significant. In both political traditions the principles of human freedom and dignity have provided the moral impetus in the struggle for democracy and political independence. The African political experience of modernity, however, has, been less than salutary, given the devastating impact of European colonial domination and racism, as well as current neoliberal projects of globalization. For Plato, the ideal of the good life is inseparable from the historical possibility of economic (material) well-being, without which there can be no talk of justice. Given this argument, this paper seeks to reflect upon the idea and possibility of justice in the modern Africa state.
Wesley Cragg (Business Ethics, York University, Toronto, Canada; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Plato, Business and the Challenge of Moral Leadership
It is not at all obvious to those perplexed by the social, economic and environmental challenges posed by our contemporary society, that there is much by way of guidance to be gleaned from the study of ancient philosophy. Plato would not be seen as an exception in this regard. Indeed, the suggestion that his prescriptions for a just society should be taken seriously by contemporary leaders might even be thought to be offensive. Plato, after all, described democracy in his middle dialogues, particularly the Republic, as a socially corrupt and unstable prelude to tyranny. The ideal as described in the Republic was a society governed by an austere elite of philosopher kings, a society whose members were assigned roles or stations at an early age, a paternalistic society in which enslavement and gender discrimination were accepted practices. Yet, understandable as this perspective is, I shall argue that it obscures much of practical value in Plato's dialogues. Plato's world, like our own, had a distinctly cosmopolitan character, induced by a process of globalization as dramatic and unsettling to his contemporaries as the globalization we face today. Athens as well as neighbouring city states faced issues of leadership exacerbated by corruption, political and military conflict, and social unrest and instability. The prescriptions of the educational elite, were generated by the Sophists, "international scholars" not unlike those that occupy prestigious positions in our contemporary universities, whose advice was grounded on principles of self interest not significantly different from those of contemporary "political realists" and economists.
Faced with these challenges, Plato's solution was to search for the fundamental moral principles on which a harmonious and just society could be built. His understanding of the appropriate application of those principles in the world of his day leaves much to be desired seen from our contemporary perspective. However, as I shall argue, the moral insights, generated by his analysis of the predicament of Socrates, combined with those that guided the construction of his ideal society in the Republic, have substantial, practical value for analysing and resolving the economic and political challenges we face today, challenges similar in many respects to those faced by Plato and his contemporaries. This is particularly true, I shall argue, for understanding the moral responsibilities of business both in the advanced and developing economies under conditions of globalization.
Sira Dambe (English Studies, Unisa; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Receiving the ethics of power: Plato, Ficino and the education of a ruler
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), erudite Renaissance philosopher, was the scholar responsible for the formal reintroduction of Platonic philosophy into Western culture. This paper examines some of the ways in which Platonic principles were received and adapted by Ficino in the context of his education of Lorenzo the Magnificent, in particular, and, more generally, of those occupying positions of power.
Andrew Domanski (School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Plato's Ethical Healing in Modern Business
Plato's ethical teaching, founded on the cardinal virtues of justice, temperance, wisdom and courage, is of universal and unchanging validity: it transcends all differences of time, place, religion, ethnic origin, political persuasion and the like. Of these four virtues, the one most easily overlooked is temperance. Plato's notion of temperance, as elaborated in his dialogues the Laws and the Republic, is far removed from conventional modern ideas on the subject: its manifold meanings include restraint, order, moderation, equilibrium, harmony, measure, self-control and balance. Temperance, in one or other of these guises, has a vital part to play in government: the rule of law, the social contract and the doctrine of separation of powers, are all demonstrably Platonic in origin. Equally important is the operation of Platonic temperance in modern business. Through the use of empirical examples, this paper studies violations and affirmations of temperance in business practice. The aim is to show that Platonic temperance can contribute towards healing the mistrust and resentment that too often cloud the relationships between a business, its employees, its customers and the public at large.
Anneli Douglas (University of Pretoria)
Towards a model for corporate travel compliance
Public and private sector organisations are increasingly concerned about policy violations in the business travel domain. The result of such violations is not only reflected in the rising cost of travel to organisations, but has a further consequence, particularly for public sector organisations where the perception of abuse of privilege by government officials is created. Studies have also shown a higher rate of deliberate travel policy violation in the public sector. A lack of scientific evidence on the underlying reasons for travel policy violations exists. This is mainly due to the relative newness of the field of tourism as an academic discipline and business and corporate travel as sub-disciplines of this field. Organisations have had to mainly rely on industry-type surveys to seek answers to what causes traveller non-compliance. These answers have often been of a superficial nature with inadequate corporate guidelines and travel policy prescriptions presented as the main reasons for violations. The purpose of this paper is to look beyond these established reasons and identify underlying factors such as the effect of corporate culture on the behaviour of the corporate traveller as well as business and individual or personal ethics. Two broad categories of factors are identified and discussed from a theoretical perspective as a first step towards formulating a model against which violation of the corporate travel policy can be empirically tested within organisations: those related to the corporate travel policy as formulated and communicated by the organisation, referred to as corporate-related factors and including issues of corporate culture and business ethics; and those related to the person of the corporate traveller, referred to as personal-related factors and including issues of the personal ethics of the corporate traveller. The research methodology follows a two-stage approach, a qualitative phase and a quantitative phase. At this stage of the research the qualitative stage has been completed. This entailed confirming the identified constructs that underpin travel policy non-compliance. The Delphi technique was applied to senior management in corporate travel portfolios. From the literature survey and the results of the Delphi methodology a model was conceptualised. The model includes those aspects that have not previously been considered: the effect of business ethics on policy compliance and the extent to which an individual’s ethics and morals have an influence on policy compliance. It is the first scientific study of its kind in the context of business and corporate travel and relates to the values and norms in the public and private domains. The second stage of the study proposes the use of a structured questionnaire to corporate travellers in the private and public sectors to test the relationship between corporate- and personal-related factors and travel policy non-compliance as shown in the conceptual model.
Ivan Kaltchev (Philosophy, Sofia, Bulgaria; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ))
The Universal and National as Values and Models of Development
In the presented paper examined analytically (philosophically-logically) and on the grounds of the pragmatically-political course of development today, which my country and the other countries from the post-communist space follow, a few fundamental problems arise:
- are there universal (general, common to all mankind) values?
- are the universal values West European?
- are the national values only specific?
- is the universal alien?
- is the national our own?
My conclusion is: the acceptance and the application of the universal democratic and humanistic values cannot be imposed in a forcible and undemocratic way, even though the ways of history have never been smooth and the world in which we live is still too far from perfection.
Mariana Kruger ( SARETI [South African Research Ethics Training Initiative], Department of Paediatrics, Kalafong hospital and University of Pretoria; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) & Ute Feucht (Department of Paediatrics, Kalafong hospital and University of Pretoria)
Parental HAART refusal in HIV paediatric practice – Important for an ethical agenda for health promotion
South Africa is experiencing a large-scale HIV epidemic with an estimate of more than 700,000 children under the age of 14 years in South Africa (SA) living with HIV. The SA Health Ministry launched the Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management and Treatment Programme in November 2003, with the aim of improving survival and quality of life of HIV-infected South Africans through the provision of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Parental informed consent is essential for HIV-infected children to access HAART in this public health programme. Informed consent is, however, a complex process, especially in developing countries. It is important to acknowledge the emotional experiences at diagnosis, and inadequate knowledge in disadvantaged communities. For health promotion it is important to address the ethical dilemma of parental ART refusal in paediatric HIV practice in South Africa. The reasons for refusal are not always clear, but include refusal by the extended family, fear of stigmatisation, and disbelief in the existence of the disease. The acceptable solution is that the health care professional should opt for the action that will ensure survival of the child, using the generally accepted ethical codes and guidelines when dealing with a child, due to the child’s inability to consent and to disregard the parent’s authority over her minor child. This solution traditionally involves seeking permission from higher authority, in this scenario the State, which will lead to the child’s placement in the custody of the State. However, this action is not feasible, considering the scope of the HIV pandemic, nor is it the ideal option due to the interference with the parent-child relationship. In conclusion this paper will state that strategies should be developed that include routine testing, mandatory HAART for children with an opt-out mechanism, adequate counselling and support of families refusing treatment, while ensuring their protection from stigmatization. This action will allow the child to live until such time that she can pursue her own life plans.
Piet Kruger (Psychology, University of South Africa; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Professoressional codes of conduct and the virtue of conscientious rule-following
Underlying ethics as the study of morals is a quest to find an answer to the question of what it is to live a moral life. One of the mechanism through which morality is enforced in contemporary times is by way of formal codes of conduct, of importance especially in the Professoressions. These are rules that govern the behaviour of Professoressional people and carry the force of law. Yet learning to follow the rules may not be the same as living a life of virtue, and may even be inimical to it. This apparent contradiction will be explored, taking a historic perspective.
Joanne Lekea (National and Kapodistrian, University of Athens; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Ethics in the Global Era: The Case of Humanitarian Assistance
In this paper, we are looking at how ethical and theological ideas offer support to the just conduct of humanitarian assistance. In the first section we provide a definition of humanitarian assistance and highlight its differences from humanitarian intervention. We, then, go on to present our main idea, namely that the practice of humanitarian assistance marks a positive step towards helping, and even, rescuing non-combatants, as well as securing the inviolable rights of unprivileged groups in conditions of extreme necessity. We conclude by discussing various topics relating to the role of public policies, Non Governmental Organizations and church initiatives in the proper conduct of humanitarian assistance.
Tobias Louw (Philosophy, University of Fort Hare)
The value and use of Socratic principles for integrity training in organizations
That philosophy in general and ethics in particular is gaining in popularity and demand in the globalized world of corporate organizations of today is an undisputable fact. How philosophers in practice make a difference and prove their worth is gradually being brought into the realm of public knowledge. The ethical dilemmas encountered by those doing business under the same branding in different localities in the global village, for example, are in constant need to be understood and addressed. This paper will outline the potential of philosophy for learning organizations and specifically look at the practice of integrity training as an example of the contributions by philosopher consultants. Integrity training empowers corporate leadership on various management levels to reorient themselves as part of an integrated whole, which includes both inner growth and promoting the public good. Special emphasis is put on the moral competence developed from own experience via the utilization of various Socratic principles.
Pavlos Michaelides (Philosophy, University of Nicosia)
Ethics and the Divine: Inflections of Otherness in Socrates and Levinas
This paper explores similarities and differences between the Socratic and Levinasian ethical perspectives seeking to ascertain our responsibility before the dilemmas confronting our century. For Socrates and Levinas human destiny is shaped by our personal response to otherness grounded in ethics par excellence ethics as first philosophy in irrevocable relation to the divine. For Socrates human ethos unfolds in direct relation to the divine (ti theon). Divine relation enhances philosophical questioning and enriches the human potential for dialogue, heightening the primacy of the ethical imperative and response. Socrates’ search for wisdom presupposes an aporetics of alterity and his vocation as philosopher begins by putting to the test the very god at Delphi who affirmed that no other man was wiser than he (Ap. 21a). Henceforth, the alleged wisdom and ethos of the other establishes Socrates’ relation to otherness and elenctic questioning, a form of self-examination and also cross-examination of interlocutors, becomes the measure of his self-knowledge. Socrates’ singularity is highlighted by the remoteness of the puzzling ambiguity of the god riddle reinforced by the enigmatic otherness of the preventive voice of daimonion (to tou theou semeion), both of which foreshadow his ethical relation to others and otherness. Divine otherness qua the other enables Socrates to attain moral knowledge and opens him to philosophic ignorance, accentuating his ethical response. In Levinas prima philosophia is ethics without ontological foundation an irretrievable relation to divine otherness qua the particular other. Ethics is not a field of philosophical inquiry that ignores the singularity of human beings; the very alterity of the face its unique expression and vulnerability transcends the exteriority of form coinciding with a desire for the divine: infinitely clarifying our response. The face to face personifies a pre-ontological oeuvre into the dynamics of conversation (dialegesthai) augmenting communication (communion) it is a straightforward welcoming of the divine in the other. Encountering the otherness of the face is the height in which the divine reveals a welcoming of justice and infinite responsibility. The ethical obligation before the uprightness and dignity of the others face bears meaning beyond being thus the primacy of ethics is established pre-cognitively outside and against the ideological matrix of the philosophical tradition. Civilization needs a moral and spiritual transformation. The misuses of scientific progress and technological innovation in modernity have resulted in the monumental violence of great wars and the ecological crisis we are presently facing. The crucial questions confronting modernity are neither economic political or military nor are they epistemological, ideological or even intellectual, rather they are grounded in ethics: the spiritual foundation for all spheres of human activity. The advancement of culture perhaps the very survival of humanity depends on our capacity to respond ethically. Nothing less than the devaluation of ethics its deterioration to the relativism of subjectivity along with the looming threat of nihilism which plaques our era makes the philosophizing of Socrates and Levinas more pertinent today.
Η ηθική και το θείο: Κλίσεις του Άλλου στον Σωκράτη και στον Λεβινάς
To άρθρο αυτό εξετάζει τις ομοιότητες και τις διαφορές ανάμεσα στην σωκρατική και την λεβίνεια ηθική, σε μια απόπειρα επανακαθορισμού της δικής μας στάσης απέναντι στα σύγχρονα ηθικά διλήμματα. Για τον Σωκράτη και τον Λεβινάς η μοίρα των ανθρώπων καθορίζεται από την ηθική στάση του καθενός απέναντι στο Άλλο ή το θείο.
Σύμφωνα με τον Σωκράτη, το ανθρώπινο ήθος βρίσκεται σε άμεση σχέση με το Θείο, καθώς η αναζήτηση της σοφίας προϋποθέτει την αναζήτηση του Άλλου, του ετέρου, του θεού των Δελφών, εκείνου που του είπε ότι «ουδείς άλλος σοφότερος αυτού» (Απ. 21α). Ως εκ τούτου, η υποτιθέμενη σοφία και το ήθος του Άλλου εδραιώνει την σωκρατική θέση περί της ετερότητας και ο έλεγχος γίνεται εργαλείο μέτρησης της δικής του σοφίας. Η σωκρατική απορία μεγαλώνει τόσο εξαιτίας της αμφισημίας του χρησμού όσο και εξαιτίας της αινιγματικής ετερότητας: της αποτρεπτικής φωνής του δαιμονίου (το του θεού σημείο).
Στον Λεβινάς, επίσης, η πρώτη φιλοσοφία είναι ηθική, δεν θεμελιώνεται οντολογικά και σχετίζεται άμεσα με τη ετερότητα, καθώς κορυφώνεται μέσω της μοναδικότητας του Άλλου και της αναζήτησης του Θείου. Το Άλλο, έτσι, είναι αυτό που καθορίζει την ηθική μας ευθύνη, καθώς η συνάντησή μας με αυτό επιτρέπει ένα προ-οντολογικό άνοιγμα (oeuvre), ένα δυναμικό διάλογο, την «κοινωνία» του Θείου. Η επαφή μας με το Άλλο είναι, μάλιστα, αυτή η συνθήκη που μας φέρνει προ της ηθικής μας ευθύνης έναντι της ριζοσπαστικής ετερότητας, αλλά και που μας εξαναγκάζει να το αποδεχθούμε ως κάτι «επέκεινα του όντος». αυτό είναι που θεμελιώνει την ηθική ως την προϋπόθεση κάθε οντολογίας.
Τα κρίσιμα ερωτήματα της κάθε εποχής έχουν την ρίζα τους στην Ηθική. Στη δική μας εποχή, την εποχή της τεχνολογίας και της πληροφόρησης, είναι αδήριτη η ανάγκη της στροφής μας προς την ηθική και το Άλλο. Η φιλοσοφική προοπτική της σκέψης του Σωκράτη και του Λεβινάς κρίνεται ως η πλέον ενδεδειγμένη, αλλά και αναγκαία.
Irina Mitina (South Federal University, Russia; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Contemporary forms of inequality
Inequality was and is a serious problem of the contemporary world. In my paper I intend to mark the forms of inequality which exist in the here and now and draw up briefly the proposed criteria of its classification. Since the Nation-State is the basic subject of the world policy and at the same time globalism has become one of the leading trends of nowadays, I distinguish the inequality of persons, groups and communities within the Nation-States from the forms of inequality within the globalizing world. In one's turn, one can distinguish the old forms from the new forms of inequality inside the Nation-State’s forms.
Gerasimos Rentifis (Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Stoic understanding of duty and work relationships
In the life of Stoic thinkers the concept of duty is the first and basic demand of ethical completion of a human being. Moreover, Stoic philosophy aims at training people in order to choose and follow virtuous life. For this reason the Stoa’s founder Zeno (334-262 century B.C.) was the first thinker in the history of science who created and consecrated the term “duty”, defining it as follows: “Duty is something preferred, which contains in itself reasonable arguments why should we prefer it, as for instance, it’s corresponding to the nature of life itself”. It is obvious from this formulation that first and complete duty is designated as an obligation of a human being to act according to nature. This duty in Stoic philosophy stands as a categorical imperative and represents the kind of “obligation” to reason (to reasonable life) which is nature, thus constituting the “fluency of life” which assures happiness (life according to virtue).
Different factors, such as working environment, economic allowance and social status, to name just a few, determine both Professoressional orientation and occupational activities. However, principal factor which determines and guides human social activities should be their duty or, more specifically, duty to work. For, only through physical and spiritual productive activity are human beings in the position to cover their basic living needs, to fulfill their creativity and to promote social happiness.
Consequently, in this paper I will try to show that a human being, following the Stoic model of life and actions and according to the rules of logic (which presuppose critical examination of facts and the use of logical arguments), could mold, by satisfying the supreme ethical duty, healthy work and social relationships and pursue happiness.
To that effect, I will emphasize the value of education, i.e. the Stoic notion of education, which introduces the framework of special training based upon the logic and ethical completion of human being. The Stoic education is a determining factor in the creation of responsible citizens. For, responsible citizens consciously and voluptuously choose and give priority to such physical and spiritual virtuous activities which are both chief social deeds and ethical obligations because, for them, work is the law of human nature.
In our globalised times the deontology of Stoic philosophers and the model of Stoic wise man proves timeliness and necessity of their philosophical positions. Once more, their philosophical system is a necessary advisor for shaping a healthier form of social reality and it offers an attractive answer to the eternal question “how one must live”.
Η στωική αντίληψη για το καθήκον και οι εργασιακές σχέσεις
Στη ζωή των Στωικών διανοητών η έννοια του καθήκοντος συνιστά το πρώτο και το βασικό αίτημα της ηθικής τελείωσης του ανθρώπου. Συγκεκριμένα η Στωική φιλοσοφία θέτει ως στόχο να εκγυμνάσει τον άνθρωπο στο να επιλέξει και να ακολουθήσει τον ενάρετο βίο. Γι’ αυτό το λόγο ο ιδρυτής της Στοάς Ζήνων ο Κιτιεύς (334-262 π.Χ.) υπήρξε ο πρώτος στην ιστορία της επιστήμης, ο οποίος έπλασε και καθιέρωσε τον όρο «καθήκον», που τον όρισε ως εξής: «Ó προαχθšν εÜλογόν τε ‡σχει ¢πολογισμόν, οŒον το ¢κόλουθον ™ν ζωÍ» και ως πρώτο τέλειο καθήκον, όπως δείχνει το ανωτέρω χωρίο προσδιόρισε την υποχρέωση του ανθρώπου να ενεργεί σύμφωνα με τη φύση (ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῆν). Το καθήκον αυτό επέχει θέση κατηγορικής προστακτικής στη διανόηση των Στωικών και είναι μία «ομολογία» προς τον λόγο (προς τÒ κατά λόγον ζῆν), που είναι η φύση και συνιστά την «εÜροια βίου», η οποία μας εξασφαλίζει την ευδαιμονία (τÒ κατ’ ¢ρετήν ζῆν).
Τον επαγγελματικό προσανατολισμό του ανθρώπου και την επιλογή της εργασιακής του δραστηριότητας καθορίζουν διάφοροι παράγοντες, όπως η θέση του στο εργασιακό περιβάλλον, οι χρηματικές αποδοχές και η κοινωνική προβολή. Όμως ο κατεξοχήν παράγων που θα πρέπει να προσδιορίζει και να καθοδηγεί την κοινωνική δραστηριότητα του ανθρώπου είναι εκείνο που είναι γι’ αυτόν καθήκον και συγκεκριμένα το καθήκον για εργασία, διότι μόνο μέσα από τη σωματική και πνευματική παραγωγική δραστηριότητα ο άνθρωπος είναι σε θέση να καλύπτει τις βιοτικές του ανάγκες, να εκπληρώνει την δημιουργικότητά του και να προάγει την κοινωνική ευδαιμονία.
Στην παρούσα λοιπόν Ανακοίνωση θα επιχειρήσουμε να αναδείξουμε ότι ο άνθρωπος, ακολουθώντας το Στωικό πρότυπο ζωής και ενεργών σύμφωνα με τους κανόνες της λογικής που προϋποθέτουν κριτική εξέταση των δεδομένων και χρησιμοποίηση λογικών επιχειρημάτων θα μπορέσει, ικανοποιώντας το πρώτιστο ηθικό καθήκον να διαμορφώσει υγιείς εργασιακές και κοινωνικές σχέσεις και να οδηγηθεί στην ευδαιμονία.
Παράλληλα θα τονίσουμε την αξία της παιδείας και συγκεκριμένα την αξία της Στωικής παιδείας που συνιστά ένα πλαίσιο ειδικής εκπαίδευσης, η οποία στηρίζεται στην λογική και ηθική κατάρτιση του ανθρώπου. Η Στωική εκπαίδευση είναι η καθοριστική αιτία που διαμορφώνει υπεύθυνους πολίτες, οι οποίοι συνειδητά και ηθελημένα επιλέγουν κατά προτεραιότητα τη σωματική και την πνευματική ενάρετη δραστηριότητα ως το πρώτιστο κοινωνικό έργο, αλλά και ως ηθικό χρέος διότι θεωρούν την εργασία ως επιτακτικό νόμο της ανθρώπινης φύσεως.
Σε μία λοιπόν παγκοσμιοποιημένη εποχή όπως αυτή που ζούμε η καθηκοντολογία των Στωικών φιλοσόφων και το πρότυπο του Στωικού σοφού αποδεικνύουν την επικαιρότητα και τη ζωτικότητα των φιλοσοφικών θέσεων της Στοάς, που ως φιλοσοφικό σύστημα συνιστά τον απαραίτητο σύμβουλο για την διαμόρφωση μίας υγιέστερης μορφής κοινωνικής πραγματικότητας και προσφέρει μία ελκυστική απάντηση στο διαχρονικό ερώτημα «πîς βιωτέον».
Deon Rossouw (Philosophy, University of Pretoria; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Aristotle in the modern corporation?
After a number of spectacular moral failures in organisations despite them having had codes of ethics and ethics programmes, it has become clear that a mere reliance on codes of ethics and ethics compliance programmes is not sufficient to safeguard organisations against serious ethical failures. The insight has dawned that transformation on the deeper level of organisational culture is required. This emphasis on corporate ethical culture is evident in the revised American Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organisations as well as in the draft of the Third King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa.
The shift from an emphasis on corporate compliance to an emphasis on corporate culture represents a shift from an act-based approach to ethics to an actor-based approach to ethics. Instead of focussing on rules, the focus shift to virtues in the latter approach. This brings the tradition of philosophical virtue ethics into play. The question that will be addressed in this paper is: ‘Can a neo-Aristotelian approach to virtue ethics be accommodated in modern capitalist corporations?’
Drawing on Alisdaire MacIntyre’s interpretation of the Aristotelian virtue ethics tradition as well as his critique of late capitalist organisations the possibilities and constraints of neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics for the cultivation of corporate ethical culture will be explored.
Debika Saha (University of North Bengal, Kolkata)
Global environmental ethics and local contents of action
Among the remarkable issues of life in the 21st Century, environmental ethics is one of the most debatable subjects that have caught public attention widely. Since its inception in the year 1970, environmental ethics has been a strong part of the movement to save the environment. The debate centering on these ethics has created two equally strong groups. On the one hand, there are people who view the environment as an area for development for the well-being of humanity, as well as an eternal source of increased economic gain. On the other there are groups like Greenpeace who raise the slogan “think globally act locally” and treat the environment as a treasure that must be handed down to the future generations pristine and unscathed. While there are specifically global environmental problems like global warming, ozone depletion, bio-diversity, there are also local problems of particular salience for local groups, countries and regions. This level of concern creates growing awareness of human-environment interactions. The present paper wants to explore the above issues in two ways. First, it tries to unveil some of the ways of the global-local relations of environment. And secondly, this paper also reviews the position that without coherent environmental value systems, it is not possible to save the environment from outside.
Johan Strijdom (Religious Studies, University of South Africa; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Paul, the Stoics and human rights
Two recent arguments trace the genealogy of human rights back to either Paul on the one hand or the Stoics on the other. First, Crossan and Reed ("In search of Paul" 2004) suggest that although Paul intended his egalitarian vision and program for Christian communities in the first place, his wish that all humanity should convert to a Christian world of egalitarian justice would logically imply a basic continuity with the ideals of universal human rights. Secondly, the classicist Richard Sorabji argues that the concept of human rights may be found in the Stoic idea of "oikeiosis", although he identifies important differences as well. My purpose will be to relate these two archaeological arguments, in the light of recent comparisons between Paul and the Stoics, and to hermeneutically problematize the discourse with reference to Hannah Arendt and post colonialists' perplexities of human rights.
Alexandros Theodoridis (Democritus University of Thrace, Greece)
The retreat into private life of the individual, the decline of public life and the role of education
The protracted crisis afflicting western societies, their inability to present themselves as a source of meaning and value, is leading to a decline in the public sphere of life. Within this context the individual tends to regard society as a form of compulsion imposed on him from outside, and retreats into the private sphere; he hopes to enclose himself within his own private world, and yet inexorably the same decline and decadence seeps into that private world from the wider society beyond. This “privatised” individual is an anthropological type which seems to embody the most important value of the contemporary West, none other than the unfettered expansion of power, of domination, in the form, first and foremost, of a rampant consumerism. The pursuit of selfish interests, this cutting the individual off from the society around him, which gives rise to this new anthropological model, can have no other result but to fragment, to reduce to its component parts in an abyss of disintegration, any form of collective being. In essence, its effect is to utterly annihilate that being. A central role in this process is played, obviously, by our upbringing and education, as they are conceived and affected by their main providers “the family and the school“in their conveying of the predominant spirit of the age, the spirit of nihilism.
The contemporary western world is already confronting the consequences of this state of affairs, however much post-modern thinkers would like to persuade us of the contrary. Were we in the West to ask ourselves what is required to escape from this situation, we would realize that the change that is needed is quite enormous in its magnitude. For the answer can only lie in the creation of a society in which the life of man is structured around ideals different from the pursuit of wealth, power and consumption. Yet we must never forget that such a society cannot overlook the necessary statutory framework – for the freedom of the individual has huge statutory dimensions. And this objective cannot be attained without a democratic system. Nevertheless, western civilization remains stubbornly committed to the separation of morality and politics, the separation of the inner man and the public man, thereby embodying a legacy which has its roots in Plato and descends - via the Cynics, the Epicureans and, especially, the Stoics - to Christianity.
Assuming that the creation of a new society is now necessary if the West is to rise from its moral bankruptcy, we must also remind ourselves that freedom under democracy cannot automatically resolve all issues thrown up by human existence, for human life has always involved elements of tragedy and can only be lived in this framework.
Whether the contemporary societies of the West will ever wish to shake off the spectre of power and domination and invest their energies in a truly collective existence, one defined very differently from the situation today – this, of course, we have no way of knowing. Yet should they decide to do so, it is impossible to conceive of any other path they might follow towards this goal than the path of education, an education which will develop and shape its charges as democratic citizens, as beings who cultivate their self-awareness and exercise their mental faculties and phronesis in both public and private life.
Η ιδιωτικοποίηση του ατόμου, η παρακμή της συλλογικής οντότητας και ο ρόλος της αγωγής
Η παρατεταμένη κρίση των δυτικών κοινωνιών, η αδυναμία τους, δηλαδή, να παραστήσουν τον εαυτό τους ως πηγή νοήματος και αξίας, οδηγεί στην παρακμή της συλλογικής οντότητας. Μέσα σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, το άτομο, θεωρώντας την κοινωνία ως έναν καταναγκασμό που επιβάλλεται εξωτερικά, υποχωρεί στην ιδιωτική σφαίρα, στην οποία και αυτοεγκλείεται, ενώ, στο μεταξύ, η παρακμή αυτή έχει διεισδύσει και σε αυτή τη σφαίρα. Αυτό το ιδιωτικοποιημένο άτομο συγκροτεί έναν ανθρωπολογικό τύπο, ο οποίος φαίνεται να ενσαρκώνει την πιο σπουδαία αξία της σύγχρονης Δύσης· δηλαδή, την απέραντη επέκταση της κυριαρχίας, η οποία κατ’ εξοχήν μεταφράζεται ως συνεχής αύξηση της κατανάλωσης.
Η ακρωτηριαστική ιδιοτέλεια, η οποία αποδίδει έναν τέτοιο ανθρωπολογικό τύπο, είναι φανερό ότι δεν μπορεί παρά να μοριοποιεί, μέσα από έναν αβυσσαλέο διασκορπισμό, τη συλλογική οντότητα και κατ’ ουσίαν να την αφανίζει. Κεντρικό ρόλο σε αυτή τη διαδικασία διαδραματίζει, προφανώς, η λειτουργία της αγωγής και, κυρίως, αυτή που λαμβάνει χώρα στο πλαίσιο δράσης των κεντρικών φορέων της, δηλαδή της οικογένειας και του σχολείου, μεταφέροντας το κυρίαρχο πνεύμα της εποχής, το πνεύμα του μηδενισμού.
Τις συνέπειες αυτής της κατάστασης η σύγχρονη Δύση ήδη τις αναμετρά, παρ’ ότι η μεταμοντέρνα σκέψη επιχειρεί να μας πείσει για το αντίθετο. Εάν η Δύση έθετε στον εαυτό της το ερώτημα της εξόδου από αυτή την κατάσταση, θα διαπίστωνε ότι αυτό που απαιτείται γι’ αυτή την έξοδο είναι τεραστίων διαστάσεων. Δεν μπορεί παρά να συνιστά μια δημιουργία, εντός της οποίας η ζωή του ανθρώπου θα δεσμευόταν από αξίες διαφορετικές από την απόκτηση πλούτου και ισχύος, από την κατανάλωση. Δεν θα πρέπει όμως ποτέ να ξεχνάμε ότι μια τέτοια δημιουργία δεν μπορεί να αγνοεί το θεσμικό πεδίο, καθώς η ελευθερία του ατόμου έχει πελώριες θεσμικές διαστάσεις. Και για την επίτευξή της είναι απαραίτητο το δημοκρατικό καθεστώς. Παρ’ όλ’ αυτά ο δυτικός πολιτισμός παραμένει σταθερά προσανατολισμένος στον χωρισμό ηθικής και πολιτικής, στον χωρισμό εσωτερικού και δημοσίου ανθρώπου, ενσαρκώνοντας μία κληρονομιά που ξεκινά από τον Πλάτωνα και, διαμέσου των Κυνικών, των Επικουρείων και ιδίως των Στωικών, φθάνει στον Χριστιανισμό.
Θεωρώντας ότι μια τέτοια δημιουργία είναι αναγκαία σήμερα, προκειμένου να βγει η Δύση από την ηθική κατάπτωση, θα πρέπει να σκεφθούμε, επίσης, ότι η ελευθερία μέσα στη δημοκρατία δεν διευθετεί αυτομάτως όλα τα ζητήματα, τα οποία θέτει η ανθρώπινη ύπαρξη, καθώς πάντοτε η ζωή μας χαρακτηρίζεται από τραγικές συνθήκες και δεν μπορούμε παρά να τη ζούμε μέσα σε αυτό το πλαίσιο.
Αν ποτέ οι σύγχρονες δυτικές κοινωνίες επιθυμήσουν να εξέλθουν από το φάντασμα της κυριαρχίας και να επενδύσουν σε μια συλλογική οντότητα, που θα οριοθετείται σε πλήρη απόσταση από αυτό, ασφαλώς, δεν είναι δυνατόν να το γνωρίζουμε. Ωστόσο, δεν μπορούμε να σκεφθούμε άλλον δρόμο για την επίτευξη αυτού του στόχου από την αγωγή. Οι άνθρωποι, σ’ αυτή την κατεύθυνση, θα πρέπει μέσα από τη διαπαιδαγώγησή τους να μορφοποιηθούν ως δημοκρατικοί πολίτες, ως όντα που καλλιεργούν την αυτοσυνειδησία τους και που ασκούν τη φρόνηση, τόσο στον ιδιωτικό όσο και στον δημόσιο βίο τους.
Λέξεις κλειδιά: ιδιωτικοποίηση, συλλογική οντότητα, ανθρωπολογικός τύπος, ηθική και πολιτική της ελευθερίας, δημοκρατία, αγωγή
Chibueze Udeani (University of Salzburg, Austria; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Traditional African Spirituality and Ethics – A Panacea to Leadership Crisis and Corruption in Africa?
One of the results of globalisation has been the growing number opportunities to be found within different societies. Another result has been the increase of Professoround ethical concerns and questions being raised in these societies – each of critical importance to the global community. The global community is being confronted daily with diverse ethical issues, including the issue of ethics in the public as well as in the private sectors. In most societies, leadership will touch both these sectors. The ethical issues related to leadership – especially in our world today, are issues that need to be addressed worldwide and from many different points of view.
Like the rest of the world in this day of globalisation, Africa is being confronted with a broad spectrum of ethical issues. The issue of leadership and more specifically corruption within the African continental leadership is well known. A close look in this area reveals that these particular problems within the African set up are of monumental proportions. With that knowledge it becomes clear that anyone who is seriously concerned about the welfare of Africa – must address these issues of African leadership and that of the overall corruption in Africa.
These issues have been occupying the time and energy of many people both individually and collectively. Numerous efforts have been made and are still being made towards finding solutions to these problems of and within African leadership. The phenomena of leadership crisis and corruption within African leadership and African societies have defied all serious efforts to make improvements. The problems have grown into a very complex and cancerous disease eating up the fabric of the African societies. The repercussions of this development are present in all spheres of the African societies of today.
The idea of using traditional African spirituality and ethics to address the issues of leadership crisis and corruption in Africa comes from the need to investigate and consider other perspectives in the search for solutions.
Within African contemporary philosophical thinking, ethics is primarily concerned with thoughts about the basis and justification of moral rules and principles – providing accounts of how people actually behave in situations requiring moral action i.e. descriptive ethics.
The primary focus here will be from the traditional African spiritual and ethical perspective relative to solving the problems of the African leadership crisis and corruption, not only within the leadership of Africa but within the various facets of different African societies. Turning to the traditional African spirituality and ethics does not imply a lack of effort towards finding ethical solutions to these problems, but emphasizes the complexity of the problems and issues, which through other approaches and philosophies – African and non-African alike, have so far been unable to address or have failed to provide adequate solutions.
The traditional African spirituality and ethics can be represented as a triangle of relationships – the first side incorporating natural beings in relationship to other natural beings. The second side pertains to the relationship between natural beings and spiritual beings and the third side is that of existing spiritual beings in their relationship to one another. Moral and ethical issues are not limited to conflicts that arise within the context of interactions between natural beings, they are of much wider and deeper dimensions.
Talking about spirituality and ethics within our frame may not be totally philosophically out of place. One needs to recall that “the question of the relationship between morality and religion has preoccupied philosophers since the inception of philosophy. Plato puts this question well: ‘Do the gods love piety because it is pious, or is it pious because they love it?’ Put in this manner, the question becomes a variant of the age-old ‘is-ought’ problem. For this Socratic question is really interested in the logical connections between what the gods’ will is, and what we ought morally to do. Is there a logically persuasive connection between what the divine will is, and what we as humans ought to do? Does this divine will derive its moral force of appeal from the simple fact that it is willed by the gods? Or is there a logical gap between the is and the ought, such that we can derive the moral force of the ought to independently of the gods’ will?”[1]
The question of ethics in African leadership has been addressed by people with different points of view. “Implicit in their work is the assumption that (just as in mainstream contemporary Western philosophy) ethics in Africa is about those action-guiding principles on the basis of which individuals within a community (and, of course, the community as a whole in relation to individuals, or in relation to other communities) regulate their conduct with other humans beings (and, of course, with other communities). Morality is primarily a this-worldly affair in which we focus on issues of co-operation, actions, attitudes, emotions, character, etc., vis-à-vis relationships with other sentient human beings and animals.”[2]
While it is clear that none can deny ethics are and should be a ‘this-worldly’ affair, the idea here is…. Since the issue of African leadership crisis and corruption within the African leadership and societies is so complex and multi-faceted, it has persistently defied all efforts towards finding an effective resolution. This would imply the ‘this-worldly’ perception of ethics is a very limited view of ethics which will ultimately not be able to completely address all the issues within the African context. When one recalls that ethics in traditional and contemporary African societies is more than just the nature or quality of interactions between sentient natural beings, it also identifies the supernatural dimension included with all moral issues – even when the issues are between human beings. Ethical and moral issues also involve spiritual beings and humans in their relations to spiritual beings.
I am quite aware of the positions of philosophers when it comes to the issue of the relationship between religion and ethics. The majority of them maintain the conception of ethics as a field in which the primal focus of attention is the relationship amongst natural beings. Morality and ethics are primarily about human conduct within human communities. Ethical questions are raised about those human conducts that affect other humans and other natural beings. …(R)eligion and the spiritual realm are outside of the moral equation in the sense that questions about the proper role of religion in ethics are pertinent only in issues of the source, origin, bases or ultimate justification of moral rules and principles.“[3]
Despite the positions just stated, the African worldview has peculiarities that do not justify an uncritically wholesome adaptation of this concept of ethics. The separation between religion and ethics does not make sense – especially when we reference issues such as leadership and corruption as they pertain to human beings within African societies. One must have room for an approach that will be “African” ethically. This will include trying to search for a solution to the problem of African leadership crisis and corruption in Africa from a spiritual-cum-ethical point of view. This is because in African culture among other things, “morality does not exist outside of religion in its this-and-other-worldly view of ethics. This is due to the fact that the spiritual and natural planes of existence form the same continuum ….”[4] Hence it is not totally out of place to address our main question: that of the possibility of the traditional African spirituality and ethics as being a panacea to leadership crisis and corruption in Africa.
Any solution to the problem of African leadership crisis and corruption in Africa will need to include a spiritual-cum-ethical point of view. In African culture “morality does not exist outside of religion in its this-and-other-worldly view of ethics. This is due to the fact that the spiritual and natural planes of existence form the same continuum ….”[5] Therefore it is not illogical to address our main question thus: Is it possible that traditional African spirituality and ethics could be a panacea to the leadership crisis and corruption in Africa?
Jason van Niekerk (University of the Witwatersrand; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Eudaimonia and Ngabantu
Aristotelian and Neo-Aristotelian accounts of ethics are characteristically concerned with the moral significance of relationships with others: relations with philoi are both implicated in our moral development, and significant goods in themselves, necessary to and partially constitutive of eudaimonia. This concern is also characteristic of African moral philosophy, where the relationships concerned are communal: articulated through the concept ngabantu (roughly, being people together) and its cognates, public and private moral concerns are not distinguished as sharply as is common in contemporary Western conceptions. It seems that these traditions can speak productively to one another’s concerns, and in this paper I sketch what I take to be some of the most interesting claims generated by incorporating ngabantu into eudaimonist discourse: that a community with a transparent reputation economy performs much the same role in moral development as that traditionally ascribed to philoi; that all or most of the Professoround values constitutive of the good life inherent in shared activities; that our investment in a communal context may ground as strong a response to Glaucon’s immoralist question as our investment in a teleological context; and that the vocabulary of virtue should be as concerned with relationships as it is with dispositions of character, since the two may diffuse into one another to the extent that they cannot properly be understood as distinct.
Panagiota Xirogianni (School of Air Force, Athens)
The relation of law and equality to Stoics
From Renaissance to recent ages, the influence of stoic moral instruction to the Western civilization was dominant. Indeed at physiocracy, the philosophical system of the 18th century, Stoicism, found a prosperous intellectual atmosphere. The Stoics Professoressed that all people are naturally equal. From this point, it is implied that justice and law are by nature. The society of humanity includes all of the above; thus, according to nature, bondage is not rejected by the Stoics. Herein it will also be examined whether international law is based on this opinion.
Η σχέση του δικαίου και της ισότητας στους Στωικούς
Από την Αναγέννηση έως τους νεώτερους χρόνους η επίδραση της Στωικής ηθικής διδασκαλίας στο δυτικό πολιτισμό υπήρξε κυριαρχική. Μάλιστα στη φυσιοκρατία, το φιλοσοφικό σύστημα του 18ου αιώνος ο Στωικισμός βρήκε ευνοϊκό πνευματικό κλίμα. Οι Στωικοί πρέσβευαν ότι όλοι οι άνθρωποι είναι ίδιοι εκ φύσεως. Από τη θέση αυτή συνεπάγεται ότι είναι «φύσει» το δίκαιον και ο νόμος. Η κοινωνία της ανθρωπότητας τα συμπεριλαμβάνει όλα αυτά και τοιουτοτρόπως σύμφωνα με τη φύση και η δουλεία απορρίπτεται από τους Στωικούς. Θα εξετασθεί στην παρούσα ανακοίνωση εάν το διεθνές δίκαιο στηρίζεται σε αυτή την άποψη.
Manasvini Yogi (Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi, India)
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
There is a one to one correspondence and relationship between Ethics and Business, Ethics and Environment, Environment and Business. Good Ethics is good business whereas even good Environment is a good Business. The relationship between Ethics and business not only leads to a good business but when supported by ethical norms, it also creates an ethically sound basis on which business can flourish. Although business means Professorit, the corporations/organisations need to practice ethical principles to prevent their business suffering. Good business is good ethics and good ethics is good business. When an interest of ethics clashes with business then is it right to compromise its ethical stands? Michael Hoffman says, “When the crunch comes, when ethics conflict with the firm’s interests, any ethics are doomed to failure”. “We should promote”, he continues, “business ethics, not because good ethics is good business, but because we are morally required to adopt the moral point of view in all our dealings”. And business is no exception. Business being an integral part of society has to be pursued in a responsible manner. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not an add-on or a burden for business, but is increasingly integrated into business. Business and society today have a ‘give and take relationship’. CSR is a multi dimensional concept covering social, economic and environmental concerns. This is a term which has entered and became an integral part of business organisations but means different things to different people. Do various meanings have a common basis when we talk of CSR, whether it is civil society, academics, or the public in general? Is it perhaps an investment in Human capital, Consumers, Stakeholders, or members of society? The common view about CSR is that it implies commitment and initiatives of an organisation to meet the society’s expectations on economic, environmental and social performance. CSR has some characteristic features - such as its voluntary nature and progress through innovations - but then how voluntary is the ethical concept? Or is it compulsion in today’s world. There are arguments for and against Corporate Social Responsibility. The developing societies and the developed societies work on different parameters, i.e. the importance given to social responsibility varies. Different societies give different weight to social responsibility. A good comparison I would like to discuss between the drivers or factors for engagement with the Social Responsibility agenda with regard to India, China and South Africa. How is Philanthropy a driving force for Corporate Social Responsibility? What procedure can be followed in implementing Corporate Social Responsibility? What is the Corporate Management in implementing CSR? Which are the important factors in the globalize world today?
Nicoletta Zagka (Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Human passions and labour
One of the most important achievements of the ancient Greek philosophical thought is the realization that measure and order are introduced into the world through virtue, as well as that passions cause confusion and disorder of soul and of human actions.
Thus, in this paper I will try to examine some forms of the conception of passion expressed within the works of Plato, Aristotle and Stoic philosophers. In the Republic Plato perceives passions as disharmony and asymmetry. For Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics the passions are, among other things, held to be a certain lack or exaggeration and never a mean between two extremes which is the ultimate pursuit of the virtuous man; while for the Stoics the passions are understood as wrong judgments of sovereign part of the soul.
The passions cause our slips from the path of good because they are maladies of the soul and as such are against the natural conditions and states of our Being. These states mostly emerge by acceptance of non-rational evaluative and ethical judgments of the world and society.
If the demand is rational functioning and ruling of harmony and balance in every part of human life and especially at the working place, then the deliberation from passions within the political society is absolutely necessary, that is from bad instincts which keep people off from any proper Becoming. Some of these passions are: hubris, rage, slander, drunkenness, anger and envy, to name just a few. Of course, those passions do not have consequences only in the society, but in the work as well. So, if these passions are the dominant features of human relations in general, it is not possible to promote reality, responsibility and solidarity of relations in the domain of labor. All this being so, there is always some kind of chasm in the working environment between the natural tendency (what is going on) and the suitable tendency (what needs to be) of things which human virtue is called upon to close, urging on commands of work deontology.
Consequently, the virtue is victory of the sovereign part of the soul over the forces and passions. It is the supremacy of logical which succeeds in subduing, restraining and imposing itself over the irrational human tendencies. This state of Being, when achieved, trains both people in general and the working citizen in virtuous life and make him a happy and virtuous member of the society.
Τα ανθρώπινα πάθη και το εργάζεσθαι
Mια από τις πιο σημαντικές κατακτήσεις του αρχαίου ελληνικού φιλοσοφικού στοχασμού είναι η διαπίστωση ότι με την αρετή εισάγεται το μέτρο και η ευταξία στον κόσμο και ότι τα πάθη προκαλούν σύγχυση και ταραχή στην ψυχή και στις πράξεις του ανθρώπου.
Στην παρούσα ανακοίνωση θα επιχειρήσω να αναδείξω την αντίληψη περί παθών, όπως αυτή διαμορφώθηκε και εκφράστηκε από τον Πλάτωνα, τον Αριστοτέλη και τους φιλοσόφους της Στοάς. Στην Πολιτεία ο Πλάτων νοεί τα πάθη ως δυσαρμονία και ασυμμετρία, στο Ηθικά Νικομάχεια ο Αριστοτέλης νοεί αυτά, εκτός των άλλων, ως έλλειψη ή υπερβολή και ποτέ ως μεσότητα την οποία επιδιώκει ο ενάρετος, ενώ οι Στωικοί αντιλαμβάνονταν τα πάθη ως εσφαλμένες κρίσεις του ηγεμονικού μέρους της ψυχής.
Τα πάθη είναι η αιτία που μας κάνει να παρεκκλίνουμε από την πορεία μας προς το αγαθό, διότι αποτελούν αρρώστειες της ψυχής και είναι αντίθετες προς τη φύση καταστάσεις του είναι μας. Οι καταστάσεις αυτές προκύπτουν κυρίως από την αποδοχή μη ορθών αξιολογικών και ηθικών κρίσεων περι του κόσμου και της κοινωνίας.
Αν λοιπόν το ζητούμενο είναι η ορθή λειτουργία και η κυριάρχηση της ευρυθμίας και της ισορροπίας σε κάθε τομέα της ζωής του ανθρώπου και κυρίως στον εργασιακό χώρο, τότε κρίνεται αναγκαίο μέσα στην πολιτική κοινωνία να υπάρχει απελευθερώση του ανθρώπου από τα πάθη, δηλαδή τα κακά ένστικτα και τα ορμέφυτα, που τον απομακρύνουν από το εκάστοτε δέον γενέσθαι. Ενδεικτικά μπορούμε να αναφερθούμε σε ορισμένα από τα πάθη, όπως, επί παραδείγματος, η ύβρις, η οργή, η συκοφαντία, η μέθη, ο θυμός και η ζηλοφθονία, τα οποία δεν έχουν μόνο αντίκτυπο στην κοινωνία αλλά και στην εργασία, εφόσον, αν κυριαρχούν στις μεταξύ των ανθρώπων σχέσεις, δεν προάγουν την παραγωγικότητα, την υπευθυνότητα και την αλληλεγγύη στις εργασιακές σχέσεις. Έτσι και στο περιβάλλον εργασίας ανάμεσα στη φυσική ροπή (σε ό,τι γίνεται) και στην αρμόζουσα ροπή (σε ό,τι πρέπει να γίνεται) των πραγμάτων υπάρχει πάντοτε ένα χάσμα το οποίο καλείται η αρετή του ανθρώπου να καλύψει παρωθουμένη από επιταγές της εργασιακής δεοντολογίας.
Η αρετή λοιπόν αποτελεί τη νίκη του ηγεμονικού μέρους της ψυχής πάνω στις ορμές και τα πάθη, την κυριάρχηση του λογικού που κατορθώνει να δαμάσει, να μετριάσει και να επιβληθεί στις άλογες τάσεις του ανθρώπου. Η κατάσταση αυτή, όταν επιτευχθεί, ασκεί τον άνθρωπο και εργαζόμενο πολίτη στο κατ’αρετήν ζην και καθιστά αυτόν ευδαίμονα και ενάρετο μέλος της κοινωνίας.