Virtues and utilitarianism: an impossible dialogue?
At first sight, utilitarianism and virtue ethics are absolutely incompatible currents of thought: utilitarianism calls for a principle of maximization, to an instrumental calculation of consequences as a criterion for the classification of moral acts, while virtue ethics requires careful analysis of the situation and the context in which the agent finds himself to determine […]
The ethics of Nudges in the time of coronavirus
In the introduction of the book “Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness”, Richard Thaler and Carl Sunstein tell the story of Carolyn, a director who runs experiments in school cafeterias whether the way the food is displayed influence children in healthier choices. At the launch of the book in 2008, it was a […]
Book reading tip: “Advice on intellectual work” by Louis Riboulet
Louis Riboulet’s book “Advice on intellectual work” is a great book to be read by anyone who has the desire to have a life of study. In its 16 chapters, the book is full of advice systematized in the beautiful prose of Riboulet, who probably gathered a huge amount of files with the advice and […]
Free will
Today’s idea is a reflection on free will and good action. Although it does not talk about morality, it is implied in the good action provided by free will, will and reason. Free will is a recurring theme both in philosophy and in people’s daily lives. Its concept refers to the freedom of action. Although […]
The virtue ethics approach in Administration
As stated by the professor of Organizational Theory at the IESE Business School (University of Navarra, Spain), Juan Antonio Pérez López (1912-1996), “science can have no other object than to help human beings make the right decisions”. Such decisions can have a technical or technological support, whose criterion is the adequacy of the means / […]
Honor: a forgotten virtue?
Aristotle, in his two books on ethics and his treatise on politics, deals less with honor than with other virtues; Mesquita (2014) points out that although the Greek philosopher recognizes the social importance of honor and shame, these are not themes of his predilection. The framework of virtues presented in Eudemian Ethics, Book II, does […]
Virtue Ethics as a perspective for common good and public happiness
This article seeks to discuss the possibility of virtue ethics being a more comprehensive and in-depth alternative for dealing with moral issues, including for considering their reflection on the achievement of the common good and public happiness. Studies in business ethics have shown a growing interest in virtue ethics (VE) as an appropriate approach to […]
Christian ethics and reality
Considered one of the greatest works on Christian ethics, Ethics was the name given to a book written by the theologian and philosopher Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was born, lived, and died in Germany at the height of Nazism. He was hanged because of his opposition to Hitler’s Nazism. In 1934 he wrote: “Jesus Christ, and […]
AdmEthics researcher, Laís Silveira Santos, wins the 2020 Capes Thesis Award in the Administration area
The Ph.D. dissertation of the AdmEthics group researcher, Laís Silveira Santos, supervised by Dr. Mauricio C. Serafim, the leader of the group, was the winner of the 15th Capes Thesis Award in the area of Public and Business Administration, Accounting Sciences and Tourism, edition 2020. The object of this study is to reward doctors, nationwide, […]
Dostoievski’s The Brothers Karamazov and the objective morality
In his novel The Brothers Karamazov, written in 1879, Fiódor Dostoiévski tells us the story of three brothers (who later discover themselves four), children of the same father, but from different marriages. The father, Fiodor Karamazov, a character of quite questionable character, even though relatively well established, spends his life ascending economically and socially through […]