EDITORIAL Ethics in Business, in Search of Wholesome Health for Human Society

• Autorzy: Ogbujah Columbus N.
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

One sociological scheme that aided human survival from the Stone Age is the instinct for self-preservation. Humans, as Sigmund Freud notes, are “creatures among whose instinctual endowments are to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness.” When combined with deceit, aggression becomes a potent tool both for survival and for conquest/expansion into new territories. Given, as Thomas Hobbes alluded that in the state of nature, life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, and owing to the Darwinian evolutionary historiology, which claims that only the fittest survived, the exhibition of brute force and crude acquisitive tendencies became salutary enterprises. Not surprisingly the acuity of the Latin maxim Homo homini lupus (Man is a wolf to man), is not contested in many quarters of intellectual scrutiny. Objectionable as this is, as a guiding principle, instances of man being a wolf to man are rife in every age and culture. Now and again, this proverb manifests not only in the commodification of others (slavery) by seeing them as potential helpers or sexual objects, but also in exploiting their capacity for work without adequate compensation, in sexually abusing them, in forcefully seizing their possessions, political power or territories, in swindling them, in humiliating them, in causing them pain, and in torturing and killing them. All of these occur in spite of robust positive laws of nation-states and multiple international charters. Following the realist conflict theory, this natural proclivity for individual self-preservation and the pursuit of self-interest always drives humans to subvert rules and promote self-goals. We can easily relate these to most of the world’s crises: the shipment of black Africans to the West Indies and Europe for slavery, the inordinate ambition of Adolf Hitler for race purification that led to the extermination of millions of people during World War II, the insider trading at the Wall Street that led to the collapse of the world economy, the unsustainable exploitation of nature and industrial pollutions by corporations that have caused unprecedented natural disasters and sufferings, unconscionable proselytizing techniques that have led to religious intolerance, terrorism, and wars, the partisan manipulations and election rigging, especially in developing nations— leading to political crises, and the systemic disenfranchising of whole groups based on race, colour or gender in scientific and technological knowledge productions, etc. In all these, there is a palpable lack of ethics in the conduct of human affairs, and humans seem to revel in being wolves to each other. Although ethics in business (business ethics) is relatively new as a specialized philosophical discipline, it has, since antiquity, been the bedrock of flourishing humane societies. Due primarily to the postmodernist hedonistic penchant for profit maximization, and buoyed by a vigorous exploitation of Milton Friedman’s argument that the ethical duty of business people is nothing but to maximize profit within the law, some scholars and entrepreneurs tend to be suspicious of this merger. Nonetheless, studies abound that show the criticality of ethics to individual and corporate integrity, national harmony, and global peace which are indispensable ingredients for growth. In contradistinction to the animalistic depiction of humans, Seneca avers: “Homo, sacra res homini”— “Man is an object of reverence in the eyes of man.” Seeing each other as “objects of reverence” is the goal of ethics in business. It engenders respect, trust, loyalty, love, and care beyond legalism. Ethics in business thus, provides the opportunity for the diffusion of these inimitable values for social relationships and survival in human interaction. We live in a world broken by selfishness and greed, and history has shown that despite fleeting benefits to those who operate businesses without integrity, the enduring effects of unethical business practices can potentially destroy the entire fabric of the human race. Hence, despite its rejection in some quarters, the call for the injection of ethics into business is a call for collective responsibility; it is a call that harps on the need for cooperation and unity of all humans for survival. In this monothematic issue of Dialogue and Universalism, these scholars have diversely explored the centrality of ethics in businesses for a truly “healthy” life-style and a genuinely prosperous society. I enjoin you to savor the courses in this “menu,” and give us your feedback to enrich our intellectual culture.

• Wydawca: Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk; Fundacja Filozofia Na Rzecz Dialogu
• Czasopismo: Dialogue and Universalism
• Rocznik: 2024
• Numer: 1
• Strony: 5-6

Twórcy

autor

Ogbujah Columbus N.