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28 June 2012, 6.41am EST

Challenge 15: Let’s get ethical; embracing the cosmos leads to better decision-making

In part 15 of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Edward Spence argues that the modern world is crying out for a return to classical cosmopolitanism. Global challenge 15: How can ethical considerations become more routinely incorporated into global decisions? When anyone asked him where…

Author

Edward Spence

Senior Research Fellow at the ARC Special Research Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University

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Swgwhq48-1338952523 — We are the world: under a cosmopolitan ethos, citizens from all corners of the globe are united by a universal, common language. hojusaram

In part 15 of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Edward Spence argues that the modern world is crying out for a return to classical cosmopolitanism.

Global challenge 15: How can ethical considerations become more routinely incorporated into global decisions?

When anyone asked him where he came from, he said, “I am a citizen of the world”.

Diogenes Laertius, Life of Diogenes the Cynic

My Greek friend Luke has been telling me about his current passion – playing backgammon on the internet. His latest contest was with a Turk from Istanbul. Two individuals, who have never met before and have traditionally been divided by hostile boundaries of ethnicity, religion and politics for over five centuries, came together for a game of backgammon and a chinwag in a way unimaginable before the internet.

Can the internet provide a global medium for the development and promotion of cosmopolitan ethics that can transcend ethnic, religious, cultural and social conflicts? Can the cultivation of cosmopolitan ethics provide the platform not only for a better understanding between individuals involved in such conflicts, but for these differences to be transcended?

Cosmopolitanism is a central belief of Stoic philosophy. It is the belief that human beings, as rational creatures, are inter-connected as part of the One Rational Cosmos. As fellow-members of the Cosmos, all human beings share a common kinship and equal moral status. They are all cosmopolitans, citizens of the world.

Although antithetical to cosmopolitanism, colonialism (both ancient and modern) has advanced the cause of cosmopolitanism by providing one of its essential practical features – namely, that of a universal common language – for if universal reason is to spread and become the foundation of human relationships, it must be able to be expressed in a universal language, common to all people. The new globalisation of economic rationalism and free trade is determined not by gunboat diplomacy, but multinational corporate policy. Its opponents suggest that this is another form of world colonisation exercised though the money-market for the benefit of the rich and powerful. If true, the new globalisation can be perceived as another form of world colonisation, albeit an economic one.

Slavery, as practised under the old colonialist regimes, has been replaced with sweatshops in third-world countries, where consumer goods are manufactured for the affluent citizens of the corporate world. In his book, The Global Soul, Pico Iyer refers to this new type of globalisation as ‘cocacolanisation’ – a globalisation in which companies become more important than countries and people.

As it treats people primarily as consumers, economic globalisation has no interest in promoting cosmopolitanism in accordance with the Stoic ideas of eudaimonia (happiness and well-being), autarkeia (inner-freedom and self-reliance) and a simple lifestyle based on the pursuit of virtue. It views people not as ends to be allowed to develop their full human potential for their self-fulfilment and moral benefit, but rather as economic units of consumption that provide the means for generating profits for large multinational corporations. However, as in the case of colonial globalisation, economic globalisation is providing, even if unintentionally, the means for advancing the practical possibility of cosmopolitanism. It provides and supports a vast information network accessible by billions of people around the globe, which can be used to lay down the foundations of cosmopolitanism.

When used for ethical ends, the ubiquity of social media is contributing to the realisation of cyber-cosmopolitanism. Closely associated with the cosmic perspective of stoic philosophy is the communal perspective. For the Stoics, unlike Aristotle before them, the polis is the cosmopolis – not the city-state, nor any single country – but the whole world.

The cosmic and the social dimension of the internet provide a perfectly suitable medium for the dissemination of cosmopolitanism. Although concepts of a cosmic dimension and community engagement underlie both cosmopolitanism and the internet, the latter does not yet embody the other essential Stoic features relevant to cosmopolitanism. Significantly, what is missing is the practice of wisdom; understood not as a form of information, but as a way of being in the world requiring one to live a good life both individually and communally in accordance with virtue.

More than information, wisdom requires moral transformation. More than knowledge, wisdom requires practical ethics – both essential for developing trust amongst people. Perhaps this would occur not through revolution, but through an evolution of a global spirit. Using the internet to propagate the precepts and practices of cosmopolitanism we may be able to create the first world cosmopolis. The realisation of global ethics can only occur through the adoption of cosmopolitan ethics and that is our biggest challenge: how to become true cosmpolitans in thought and in practice. Cyber-citizens may have already made a start by creating the cosmic cyber-world. Let’s hope cosmopolitan ethics follows next.

Comments welcome below.

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20 Comments sorted by

Bruce Waddell

logged in via LinkedIn

I am a new convert to the conversation so I am over indulging my view in several conversations at once. Like conversations face to face once you have expresssed a view it is only a matter of time before your view is challenged. That this is happening in cyberspace means our views are more likely to be challenged and our minds expanded. I am lucky to have within my contacts many people who aren't prepared to belong to any fixed clique. Many of those people are travellers and their extended says…
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I am a new convert to the conversation so I am over indulging my view in several conversations at once. Like conversations face to face once you have expresssed a view it is only a matter of time before your view is challenged. That this is happening in cyberspace means our views are more likely to be challenged and our minds expanded. I am lucky to have within my contacts many people who aren't prepared to belong to any fixed clique. Many of those people are travellers and their extended says for work or study are sharpening my focus on the world. Currently I have friends or family working overseas or studying in Europe, the middle east, china. Some of these people have also lived in the Americas and Africa. Every last one of them has told me how wonderful, sometimes naive, and hospitable the local people are. These are the same people that are villified as new immigrants or worse if they are refugees. I agree with Edward Spence, "Using the internet to propagate the precepts and practices of cosmopolitanism we may be able to create the first world cosmopolis." I hope so. This is a wonderful world.

11 months ago report
1. Gil Hardwick
  
  Anthropologist
  
  In reply to Bruce Waddell
  
  Yes, I agree, Bruce. Browsing the Internet today is akin to travelling, to having our views challenged and critiqued in ways we might never have imagined, and obliging us to stop and think, and respond accordingly.
  
  In all my years of anthropology, people ask me what I have got out of it, and all I can answer is, "A renewed sense of that it is to be human."
  
  In reply to Bruce Reyburn below, then, I suggest that the first step toward reconnecting with 'First Peoples' (whatever that's supposed…
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  Yes, I agree, Bruce. Browsing the Internet today is akin to travelling, to having our views challenged and critiqued in ways we might never have imagined, and obliging us to stop and think, and respond accordingly.
  
  In all my years of anthropology, people ask me what I have got out of it, and all I can answer is, "A renewed sense of that it is to be human."
  
  In reply to Bruce Reyburn below, then, I suggest that the first step toward reconnecting with 'First Peoples' (whatever that's supposed to mean) is to reconnect with yourself, rightly as you put it grounding ourselves, coming back down to earth finally.
  
  The big problem facing the Anglophone West right now is that hyperliteracy and with it hyperintellectualising every little thing has become the norm, exacerbated by widespread caffeine addiction, where the hyperactive 'monkey brain' aspect might better be stilled.
  
  When I have been asked again, by Gadiya, what they can do to help 'Aboriginal coimmunities', my simple answer is likewise, learn to sit under a tree for a week and follow the shade around, like they do.
  
  It's enormously beneficial, and not surprisingly helps greatly in teaching people to be patient and observant, to appreciate what life offers rather than running around obsessed with what it's not, trying to fix it all the time.
  
  11 months ago report
2. Black Knight
  
  writer
  
  In reply to Gil Hardwick
  
  Learning and displaying patience is certainly a key part of the mix. However, we should also acknowledge that when senior lawmen collectively sit in the shade of the tree (or in full sun in the Central Australian winter) they are discussing and resolving matters of great importance for the well-being of the whole of life.
  
  Those who learn to sit patiently may be invited to join them.
  
  11 months ago report
3. Gerard Dean
  
  Managing Director
  
  In reply to Bruce Waddell
  
  Mr Waddell
  
  If EVERYBODY overseas is "wonderful, perhaps naive, hospitable.." and us Australians are guilty of,"..vilified as new immigrants or worse if they are refugees, why is it that Australia is the second most popular country to immigrate too?
  
  I have to travel all around the world and work in factories in industrial areas. I find that everywhere I go there are nice people and grumpy people, just like in Australia.
  
  No race, religion, political party, ethical outlook has a monopoly on being nice or nasty. It is in all of us.
  
  Travel yourself and you will see.
  
  Gerard Dean
  Glen Iris
  
  11 months ago report
4. Emma Anderson
  
  Artist and Science Junkie
  
  In reply to Black Knight
  
  Ahh yes, but regardless of the culture of origin, a cosmopolitan outlook (if not strictly explicated in the philosophical canon) would lend itself to the idea that what contributes to the well-being of the whole of life, is not whether or not you sit in the sun, or on the internet discussing it, but something else entirely, such as the virtue of respecting that both are equally valid and useful methods for communicating, and that the act of caring about it implied through the communication of the issue is a virtue in itself, and that it is in fact virtuous to care at all.
  
  It just so happens that in practice, sitting under a tree, or in the sun, doesn't use fossil fuels....a direct benefit to the well being of the whole of life. But I digress, a bit of the hyperdetailing :P
  
  10 months ago report
Black Knight

writer

We need new Ways of Being without a doubt. But instead of looking to the ancient Greeks for a possible model, the Ways of Australia's First People's provide a much more robust example of what is possible. The cross-cultural dialogue which should have resulted from the contact between the two very different Ways (Indigenous and European) has been long dominated by one side only. The former can be regarded as 'earthed' and the latter as 'unearthed'. This 'unearthing' is rooted in Neolithic transformations…
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We need new Ways of Being without a doubt. But instead of looking to the ancient Greeks for a possible model, the Ways of Australia's First People's provide a much more robust example of what is possible. The cross-cultural dialogue which should have resulted from the contact between the two very different Ways (Indigenous and European) has been long dominated by one side only. The former can be regarded as 'earthed' and the latter as 'unearthed'. This 'unearthing' is rooted in Neolithic transformations and become full-blown with the 'spread' of Indo-European. I am not sure about the Asian side of the story.

As most of us in this conversation operate with an unconscious-in-culture formed by Neolithic and Indo-European metaphors, we are unable to access First People's cosmology and Ways of Being, and remain blind to great contribution waiting to be made to life from Australia's invisible civilisation.

And yet that is exactly what is required if we are to rebalance life. There is much work to be done in Australia, and restoring First People's to full health and full well-being is a vital part of that work. Repositioning Being can never be an entirely intellectual or academic exercise.

11 months ago report
1. Gerard Dean
  
  Managing Director
  
  In reply to Black Knight
  
  Hey Bruce
  
  Mr Spence has said that practical ethics builds trust.
  
  In view that you, and I and Mr Spence live on stolen land (stolen land is not just desert in Western Australia), why not give your house and land back to the local aboriginal group and arrange a leaseback so you have somewhere to live.
  
  That is practical ethics at work.
  
  Gerard Dean
  Glen Iris
  
  11 months ago report
2. Black Knight
  
  writer
  
  In reply to Gerard Dean
  
  Well, Gerard, for most of my life i have not owned a house and land i could give back, and the place i live in at the moment is not really mine to dispose of in the way you suggest.
  
  You have a point though since, when i was in the NT, i used to see non-indigenous pastoralists on TV saying how much the local indigenous people (who lived on their own land which was also covered by pastoral lease) where 'part of the family'. Yes, part of the family right up to the moment that the pastoralist passed…
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  Well, Gerard, for most of my life i have not owned a house and land i could give back, and the place i live in at the moment is not really mine to dispose of in the way you suggest.
  
  You have a point though since, when i was in the NT, i used to see non-indigenous pastoralists on TV saying how much the local indigenous people (who lived on their own land which was also covered by pastoral lease) where 'part of the family'. Yes, part of the family right up to the moment that the pastoralist passed away and the Will was read.
  
  When the High Court did what the Australian Parliament never could - and recognised the existence in common law of some form of native title - there was a wide-spread scare campaign (involving the some leading figures in the mining industry as i recall it) that this would result in indigenous people seeking ownership of everybodys "backyard".
  
  It seems to me that the 'meme' of your message contains a similar spirit.
  
  Indigenous people at that time made it clear that this was not their intention. The interests which were being served by this scare campaign were those big money. Howard's buckloads of extinquishment resulted.
  
  Over the last thirty years (or so) i have taken a different approach to the one you suggest. That is, while living lightly on the earth, to try to redirect what surplus energy i have towards the struggle for recognition of First Peoples place in this country.
  
  No doubt this does not result in much actual change, but as one person in tens of million, i reckon i have made a proportionate contribution.
  
  While i have no objection to indigenous landlords - i think they would be great - some more practical objectives may be to lobby for ratepayers to be able to direct part of their rates to a local reconciliation healing fund rather than such things (as is the case in Wollongong at the moment) where we are going to spend $15m to revamp the local Mall.
  
  Local Koories in Wollongong have told me that land and housing is a real priority for them, and if ratepayers funds could be directed in the first instance to meeting these needs, that would be a great thing (in my opinion).
  
  Additionally, i advocate that a reasonable percentage of the GDP be paid to First Peoples by way of a resource rental fee - to enable them to have direct control over all those aspects of life which are presently systematically mismanaged by the Federal and State governments.
  
  The new Congress of First Peoples - working closely with local indigenous people - could manage such a large fund.
  
  cheers
  
  Bruce
  
  11 months ago report
3. Emma Anderson
  
  Artist and Science Junkie
  
  In reply to Black Knight
  
  That would be practical ethics right there, Bruce.
  
  Although in the cosmopolitan sense it's like making the world into many countries as opposed to one humanity so it's not so much cosmopolitanism as it is just practical ethics in the context of working with the current order, sans a few hurdles and plus a few potentially useful reforms.
  
  Ironically (bare with me) advancing indigenous languages, just as an example, actually serves cosmpolitanism imho more than your suggestion seems to, as practical…
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  That would be practical ethics right there, Bruce.
  
  Although in the cosmopolitan sense it's like making the world into many countries as opposed to one humanity so it's not so much cosmopolitanism as it is just practical ethics in the context of working with the current order, sans a few hurdles and plus a few potentially useful reforms.
  
  Ironically (bare with me) advancing indigenous languages, just as an example, actually serves cosmpolitanism imho more than your suggestion seems to, as practical as yours is. Ironic in the sense that the old idea is one common tongue...a lingua franca. The world has that and it's called HTML. The problem is that people don't speak HTML. We speak thousands of languages some more than others, and every language contributes to the overall deal about what it means to be human and social and alive, and our understanding of things in general, different grammatical constructs, styles of speaking and so on, convey more than just words or their concepts, it's a whole world of information that is accessed through fluency. So my issue with the old idea of one language is like, well, how are we going to respect each other as a cosmopolis if we arbtirarily choose one language over another? Maybe the people who write languages like Esperanto are onto something.....but I would hardly say that Esperanto or whatever replaces every other language, even if it can be spoken (unlike HTML). What is more useful is to encourage multi-lingualism....and given we're onto Indigenous issues at the moment, I'm going to bring up my favoured idea and say why the hell aren't we teaching everyone of the kids the local Indigenous lingo? Why French or Japanese instead? Both cool languages, don't get me wrong, and practical to know, but in the interest of cosmpolitan stoic virtue I'd say local lingos in this case are more likely to achieve it. We've gotta get over our past so we can accept as a community all the newcomers that show up....after all....and that's often something that is ignored by "lets just do the new thing" in a revolution too - putting the fingers in the ears and ignoring this is a mistake.
  
  Like with Stalinist Russia. Ok so they overthrew a very cruel regime and eventually Stalin was in charge of the new system, some ideas were good, like everybody gets to eat, have a place to live and see the doctor. But by being to rosy about the improvements and too angry about the past, is a mistake, and Stalin became a leader of another very cruel regime. Just an example. So now people look at Stalinist Russia as though communist ideals (which are also related to cosmpolitan ideals in some ways) are inherently evil...when they are not. Just as encouraging people to be renumerated for their efforts in a system of commerce is not inherently evil. It's actually that people go about things the wrong way - with our fingers in our ears. So multilingualism to me is part of taking the fingers out of the ears....and I will end my rant by adding one more thing which is if we would like to achieve social justice in this country (and I would like to) we need to start taking our fingers out of our ears first, because not listening to people is one of the reasons why reforms like Bruce's haven't happened yet, and why there are so many problems in the first place.
  
  10 months ago report
Black Knight

writer

There is also a major problem with the notion of a universal language in terms of how this sits with notions of ethnocide. Scholars of ethnocide such as Clastres have identified the horror of the One as being very much alive at the core of those Ways where Being is well-connected to Cosmos (not his words).

Life's solution to these problems appears in the form of co-existence of many languages.

There may be some connection between the rise of a monotheistic (and genocidal) way of interpreting experience and the myth of confusion and the tower of Babel.

Thou shall have no other language than me!

And where those this apply more than in present day Australia (2012) where there is a proposal, from a panel of experts charged with recognising First Peoples in the 1901 Constitution, to formally make English the only recognised language!

11 months ago report
1. Byron Smith
  
  PhD candidate in Christian Ethics at University of Edinburgh
  
  In reply to Black Knight
  
  Bruce, can you say a little more about Babel and genocide? As I see it, part of the point of the narrative in Genesis 11 is to deny the possibility of a common language that could then be used in a centralising project that attempts to replace the worship of the divine with human empire-building? If we turn from the start to the end of the Christian holy scriptures, we find in the final book an affirmation of universal unity that does not erase difference but which is explicitly expressed through…
  Read more
  
  Bruce, can you say a little more about Babel and genocide? As I see it, part of the point of the narrative in Genesis 11 is to deny the possibility of a common language that could then be used in a centralising project that attempts to replace the worship of the divine with human empire-building? If we turn from the start to the end of the Christian holy scriptures, we find in the final book an affirmation of universal unity that does not erase difference but which is explicitly expressed through "every nation, every tribe, every people, every tongue/language".
  
  This vision has helped to drive a herculean translation project (esp during the last couple of centuries) that has recorded and preserved hundreds, even thousands, of languages that globalisation might otherwise have silenced. Of course, it has been a double-edged sword, since it has also resulted in greater cultural interchange and very often this has been more in one direction than another, but I still find it interesting that it is explicitly the *rejection* of the idea of a world language that has largely driven this project.
  
  11 months ago report
2. Black Knight
  
  writer
  
  In reply to Byron Smith
  
  Hi Byron
  
  Thanks for providing me with an opportunity to reflect on what I wrote in light of your reply.
  
  I will have to refresh my memory of the Bible and get back to you as soon as I can.
  
  One quick point to be made is that, here in Australia and elsewhere, the recording of dying languages can never be an adequate substitute for taking action to ensure the survival of existing languages.
  
  It is a bit like mapping the genome of dying species rather than changing our ways to ensure they survive…
  Read more
  
  Hi Byron
  
  Thanks for providing me with an opportunity to reflect on what I wrote in light of your reply.
  
  I will have to refresh my memory of the Bible and get back to you as soon as I can.
  
  One quick point to be made is that, here in Australia and elsewhere, the recording of dying languages can never be an adequate substitute for taking action to ensure the survival of existing languages.
  
  It is a bit like mapping the genome of dying species rather than changing our ways to ensure they survive. That is a process which sacrifices the substance for the shadow.
  
  I think it far more important to ensure, for example, that the speakers of the surviving languages of Australia’s First Peoples are provided with the necessary life support systems they require in order for them to regain full well-being (and, yes, do so in a world where speaking English is also part of the mix).
  
  In my experience First Peoples are masters of multiple languages, and some enlightened policies from the Anglo-Australian state may go come distance to reversing the damage inflicted upon First Peoples by the mindless monoculturalism from 1788 to, alas, the present day.
  
  There are signs of change though.
  
  Back soon.
  
  cheers
  
  Bruce
  
  11 months ago report
3. Black Knight
  
  writer
  
  In reply to Byron Smith
  
  Hi Byron
  
  My reply to your comment is a little too long to post as a comment here so i have made it a google doc which can be accessed by anyone with the url (i hope).
  
  See https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5L1WtKuhKjEZnZlcERqSlhQSWs
  
  Not the final word on these big matters, i am well aware, but some more words in an ongoing conversation.
  
  cheers
  
  Bruce
  
  11 months ago report
4. Byron Smith
  
  PhD candidate in Christian Ethics at University of Edinburgh
  
  In reply to Black Knight
  
  Hi Bruce,
  
  My sincere gratitude for the generosity of your reply. That clearly took more than the usual amount of time invested in below the line discussion! Unfortunately, I do not have the time to respond with the length your comments deserve. Let me assure you that our points of convergence are many, encompassing the vast majority of your concerns, if I am reading you aright (including the non-historicity of the Babel myth, the complex editorial process involved in its composition and transmission…
  Read more
  
  Hi Bruce,
  
  My sincere gratitude for the generosity of your reply. That clearly took more than the usual amount of time invested in below the line discussion! Unfortunately, I do not have the time to respond with the length your comments deserve. Let me assure you that our points of convergence are many, encompassing the vast majority of your concerns, if I am reading you aright (including the non-historicity of the Babel myth, the complex editorial process involved in its composition and transmission including possible adaptation from polytheistic source, an utter rejection of genocide, the significance of misplaced scriptural readings in shaping colonial attitudes towards the land, the necessity of reciprocity and the opportunity for learning from the ways of First Peoples - amongst other points!). There are, of course, differences, but without the time to explore them in detail I will not mention them here.
  
  One brief thought: the attitude towards rain as divine favour in Deuteronomy 11 is interestingly modified by Jesus in Matthew 5.43-47, where the ethical implications are markedly different.
  
  Thanks again,
  
  Byron
  
  11 months ago report
5. Black Knight
  
  writer
  
  In reply to Byron Smith
  
  Hi Byron
  
  Matthew 5:43-47 a different light - and spirit - agreed.
  
  Matthew 22:39 also caught my eye.
  
  The message in this part of the Bible may be the same as what i regard as "Becoming Otherwise" - transcending the narrow defintions of self (including those prefabricated for us by the modern nation-state) and moving towards a more mature understanding of life, by life.
  
  We are surrounded by the din of those beating very different drums, and they put their spin on so much which we are…
  Read more
  
  Hi Byron
  
  Matthew 5:43-47 a different light - and spirit - agreed.
  
  Matthew 22:39 also caught my eye.
  
  The message in this part of the Bible may be the same as what i regard as "Becoming Otherwise" - transcending the narrow defintions of self (including those prefabricated for us by the modern nation-state) and moving towards a more mature understanding of life, by life.
  
  We are surrounded by the din of those beating very different drums, and they put their spin on so much which we are exposed to.
  
  Mind you, there is also a real truth in the saying that it is easier to love the whole of mankind in the abstract than get on with your neighbour!
  
  Some new cognitive scripts would help all round.
  
  I see one of the challenges of our times is to fashion new narratives by which we may all lead full lives.
  
  Making better contact between our Being and Cosmos, which may align with part of the theme of Edward Spence's Challenge 15 (embracing cosmos), requires new (or old) metaphors to enable us to do so.
  
  I wonder if we could hear from Edward?
  
  Cheers
  
  Bruce
  
  11 months ago report
Bruce Moon

Bystander!

Edward

You ask...

"Can the internet provide a global medium for the development and promotion of cosmopolitan ethics that can transcend ethnic, religious, cultural and social conflicts? Can the cultivation of cosmopolitan ethics provide the platform not only for a better understanding between individuals involved in such conflicts, but for these differences to be transcended?"

Short answer, NO.

But on a broader level, I do wonder...

In this (now) electronic age, do we need a new wisdom…
Read more

Edward

You ask...

"Can the internet provide a global medium for the development and promotion of cosmopolitan ethics that can transcend ethnic, religious, cultural and social conflicts? Can the cultivation of cosmopolitan ethics provide the platform not only for a better understanding between individuals involved in such conflicts, but for these differences to be transcended?"

Short answer, NO.

But on a broader level, I do wonder...

In this (now) electronic age, do we need a new wisdom?

Or, is it already upon us, and one that sits uncomfortably with the premise (but far from practice) of the old?

I suggest the new is just transient - a transience that is beyond wisdom (however defined).

In some respects, wisdom is a function of actuating a relationship. To actually relate with another, we need some form of (ground) rules for behaviour. Wisdom is but one aspect of a rule driven relationship.

Electronic media is personal. I use my own wisdom to judge and evaluate. Unless I text someone, I 'value' my electronic observations according to my own standards.

In a physical world - be it relating to someone over coffee or walking down the high street - I gain brownie points by containing my urges to within the common wisdom based on the collective set of social norms (rules). Move outside that structure and there are negative feedback mechanisms.

In the electronic world of the viewer, there is no wisdom - there is only hedonistic pleasure!

I suggest the electronic world of hedonistic pleasure is debasing our perception of the real world. I see examples of social aggression, punch-ups, road rage, etc. - and think the values of the past are being rapidly undermined by the intrusion of the electronic into the 'real'.

- - -

As an aside, I noticed a little poem stuck by Sage Francis on a wall in Paris...

Technology made it possible for us to stay in touch while keeping a distance,

Till we just stayed distant and never touched...

Now all we do is text too much.

- - -

Cheers

11 months ago report
Gerard Dean

Managing Director

Mr Spence

I am no philosopher, preferring to keep my steel cap boots on the pegs of my Harley at all times.

So, that is why I was delighted to see you state, "More than knowledge, wisdom requires practical ethics – both essential for developing trust amongst people."

My question about practical ethics is simple and is as follows:

Aeroplanes are made of aluminium and steel that is mined, transported, smelted, rolled, milled and machined using tonnes of oil and coal fired electricity…
Read more

Mr Spence

I am no philosopher, preferring to keep my steel cap boots on the pegs of my Harley at all times.

So, that is why I was delighted to see you state, "More than knowledge, wisdom requires practical ethics – both essential for developing trust amongst people."

My question about practical ethics is simple and is as follows:

Aeroplanes are made of aluminium and steel that is mined, transported, smelted, rolled, milled and machined using tonnes of oil and coal fired electricity. The plane is then filled with plastic made from coal and oil, and is controlled by computers and silicon chips and miles of copper wire. It is then pushed through the air with its passengers and freight by hydrocarbon JetA1 fuel. The airports and travel infrastructure are made from millions of tonnes of concrete and steel and staffed by millions of specialists who all use oil and coal fired electricity to work. All of the components and parts and fuel are made by nasty multinational companies like Airbus, Boeing, Hitachi, Samsung, Alcoa, Mobil, Shell, BP, BHP, Sony, LG, Siemens, ITT, Microsoft, Apple......

Simply put, flying humans through the sky is an unsustainable use of the earth's resources.

In view of the above, how does a person who believes in man made climate change and wants us all to live sustainably, ethically justify their choice to fly around the world?

Furthermore, if they cannot or will not provide an ethical justification for saying one thing, then doing the opposite, should I trust them?

Gerard Dean
Glen Iris

11 months ago report
Black Knight

writer

See also:

Appiah, Kwame Anthony:
Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
New York: Norton, 2007, Paperback, 224 S., $ 15.95

"A moral manifesto that forces us to reconsider a world divided between the West and the Rest, Us and Them."

A nd a review by Wenzel Matiaske

http://www.management-revue.org/papers/mrev_4_08_Appiah_Review.pdf

See also cheaper used copies on Amazon (note rip-off price of $36US at academic article source.)

http://www.amazon.com/Cosmopolitanism-Ethics-Strangers-Issues-Series/dp/0393061558

11 months ago report
1. Sana Akhtar
  
  Dental Surgeon
  
  In reply to Black Knight
  
  Good morning.
  This is Dr.Sana. I am a Karachi, Pakistan based dental surgeon.
  
  This is about my article that talks about the needs of the developing countries like ours. Please have a look and ask your friends to read it, it would spread the awareness.
  
  My article is now published in Journal of Pakistan Medical Blog.
  
  This article is a fine read. It talks about some of the major global health issues faced by the under developed countries.
  Spread the awareness. Give it a read.. People might save a life. Share.
  
  Link:
  http://blogs.jpmsonline.com/2012/08/09/challenges-in-global-health-need-for-distinctive-overhaul-in-developing-countries/
  
  9 months ago report
Sana Akhtar

Dental Surgeon

Good morning.
This is Dr.Sana. I am a Karachi, Pakistan based dental surgeon.

This is about my article that talks about the needs of the developing countries like ours. Please have a look and ask your friends to read it, it would spread the awareness.

My article is now published in Journal of Pakistan Medical Blog.

This article is a fine read. It talks about some of the major global health issues faced by the under developed countries.
Spread the awareness. Give it a read.. People might save a life. Share.

Link:
http://blogs.jpmsonline.com/2012/08/09/challenges-in-global-health-need-for-distinctive-overhaul-in-developing-countries/

9 months ago report

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