Virtuousness and environment
How can organizational and natural environments facilitate the development of virtues? Among the classics, Plato (427-347 BC) states that ethical life is gradually raised by the appropriateness of this life to higher ideas (eide), analogous to the form of the Good. From Plato, Aristotle (384-322 BC) translates that the end of man is the temporal […]
Thinking about charity
Faced with a very violent urban environment, not only related to crime, but also to the pressure generated by the socioeconomic system in our daily life, we can see a pattern of thinking increasingly guided by individualism. This can create major problems for individuals who depend on the altruism of others or on government programs […]
What would be an ethical salary?
UBER, a carrier-to-application company, is planning to make a big bump on its Initial Public Offering (IPO). The expectation is that the company can get an IPO between 100 and 120 billion dollars. A curiosity is that in a prospectus released by the company, UBER reported about 6.8 billion in losses according to the magazine […]
The act of reflection on oneself and an outsourcing of ethical responsibility.
We rarely admit the error and when we do, it usually hurts. The act of recognizing one’s faults is closely connected with a mirror that reflects an image we rarely want to see. It is naturally understandable that the human being, in the majority of the times, will be overestimated, even when this appears camouflaged […]
In the face of nature – admiration and humility
Which are the virtues exercised in the immersion experience in the natural environment? Those who admire nature usually enjoy aesthetic and recreational experiences by being immersed in lectual, moral and spiritual development. Whether it is through sports, reading, or observing its complexity, of the unique beauty contained in living beings in interaction in the search […]
When disasters strike, people are not the only victims: reflections on the ethics of disasters and the animal ethics
During a natural disaster such as floods, droughts, fires and hurricanes, usually the first thoughts that come to our minds – as ordinary citizens who do not work in areas specializing in crisis management – are that we must protect our lives and property, right? But what kind of life are we talking about? As […]
The irrelevance of ethics
The title may seem a bit presumptuous, a harsh statement. And in fact, however, this is the title of an article published in the book Virtue and economy: Essays on morality and markets. The article in question is from an author of paramount importance to the context of ethics, more precisely the ethics of virtues, […]
Happiness, empathy and social selfishness: reflections on moral conduct in Utilitarianism
In utilitarian thought, the definition of morality will necessarily derive from articulation between sensitivity and rationality. The most immediate aggregation is with the Hobbesian model, where pain and pleasure are determining characteristics of cognition. The conception of Bentham establishes that nature placed humanity under the dominion of two sovereign masters: pain and pleasure. It is […]
Virtues in relationships
Practicing Virtues in relationships is not always easy. Sometimes we are in a good humor, everything is going OK and everyone is treating us kindly, agreeing with everything we say. Than, maybe we will forget that practicing virtuous is something that has to be done all the time and we don’t realize that there’s an […]
Disaster ethics and the touching case of Thai boys trapped in a cave
Crisis, tragedies and disasters have very particular characteristics of uncertainty and require different relationships and responsibilities for their response and solution, with extremely difficult decision making. The philosopher Naomi Zack (2009) – one of the main references on disaster ethics – clarifies that there are aspects of these events that go beyond the obvious facts, […]