Character and Ethics
Items on personal character and public action
The Spaces We Inhabit
Sat 09 Jan 2010 by Keely Latcham
In thinking about the importance of the spaces we inhabit, I recently read The Architecture of Happiness by Swiss philosopher and author Alain de Botton. An interesting read accompanied by many beautiful photographs, the book encouraged me to think further about the connection between space and identity—and virtue. We are not just spirits; we are more than our online presences. We have bodies and we live in spaces that help shape our experience of life.
One of de Botton’s central ideas is that of an alignment between the visual and ethical realms. That is to say, we find architecture beautiful because it corresponds to our ideas about “the good life.” Beautiful buildings, de Botton suggests, correspond to virtuous and happy people. Of course this is not always the case, nor is it a causal relationship; while architecture may suggest such ideals, it doesn’t necessarily bring them about. De Botton notes, “Not only do beautiful houses falter as guarantors of happiness, they can also [fail] to improve the characters of those who live in them.” While architecture undeniably possesses moral messages, he says, it “simply has no power to enforce them.”
However, de Botton insists that beautiful buildings convey a moral attitude, which recalls the claim of the great nineteenth-century critic John Ruskin that buildings speak to us “both of what we find important and what we need to be reminded of.” De Botton writes that architecture invites us to emulate its spirit, offering values it encourages us to adopt as our own. “It is architecture’s task,” de Botton says, “to render vivid to us who we might ideally be.”
Forgiving Enemies in Northern Ireland
Wed 06 Jan 2010 by Nigel Biggar
Spiritual Self-preservation, Absolution, and Compassion
Professor Nigel Biggar presented this talk on his understanding of reconciliation and its specific application at an evening event for the Westminster Forum of Trinity Forum Europe in December 2009.
The Importance of Gratitude
Wed 02 Sep 2009 • Responses: 1 • by Roger Scruton
Moving from charity to justice—from gift to rights—has social costs
Senior Fellow Roger Scruton reflects on the nature of gratitude and the cultural costs of ingratitude. When gifts are replaced by rights, so is gratitude replaced by claims.
On Forswearing Greed
Fri 24 Jul 2009 • Responses: 2 • by Al Sikes
Oaths and the Greater Good
Trinity Forum Chairman Al Sikes reflects on the pledge taken by members of the Harvard Business School class of 2009.
Gollum as Everyman
Fri 15 May 2009 • Responses: 1 • by David Naugle
This article is adapted from material in Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness (Eerdmans 2008).
“There is not any thing in this world, perhaps, that is more talked of, and less understood, than the business of a happy life.” Seneca said this centuries ago, and it is still true today.
Down the ages, the best human thinking has connected our happiness with what we love. What do you love? How do you love the things that you love? What do you expect from the things you love? There aren’t too many questions more important than these. The reason is that what we love makes us who we are. If we love something that cannot sustain the weight of our expectations, or if we love something in the wrong way, such disordered loves will destroy the very happiness we seek and will eventually disfigure us.
Guroian and Guptara on Speaking of Faith
Wed 25 Mar 2009 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellows Vigen Guroian and Prabhu Guptara are among the contributors to “Repossessing Virtue,” a series on the economic crisis broadcast by the American Public Media program Speaking of Faith. A one-hour program with their contributions, among others, ran on March 5 and can be found here. Uncut interviews are also available.
Guroian spoke on February 23 on the crisis of imagination that he sees behind the economic issues; you can listen and download here. (The essay he cites, “On the Choice of a Profession” by Robert Louis Stevenson, is available from Google Book Search and the Internet Archive.)
Guptara was interviewed on December 3; you can listen to his interview (with other helpful links) here
Miller interviewed on Corporate Morality
Mon 23 Mar 2009 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellow David Miller was interviewed on March 20 by the PBS show Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. You can watch the segment and read the transcript from this link.
How can we have a culture, a corporate culture that accents character, that accents the common good and not just earnings per share or a penny more per share per quarter? That’s a new culture. Is it possible that companies can make a decent profit—create wealth, create jobs, provide goods and services for society and maybe even be a moral community to develop its people? I think it can, but it will take leadership that’s committed to a new vision.
A useful exercise for leaders
Fri 20 Mar 2009 by Peter Edman
Alan Jacobs calls our attention to the blog of Douglas Bowman, a lead designer at Google who is leaving that company. Bowman explains his rationale for moving on in a provocative post:
Without a person at (or near) the helm who thoroughly understands the principles and elements of Design, a company eventually runs out of reasons for design decisions. With every new design decision, critics cry foul. Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail. “Is this the right move?” When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.
It would be a useful exercise to extend this argument to other fields, notably ethics. Do you find parallel situations in the organizations you lead? How important is it for to leaders to understand the principles by which their organization is run?
Are there situations where you are tempted to rely too much on data—science, polls, market “demands,” what is technically possible—to take the “subjective” factors out of the decision and make sure no one is ultimately responsible for a decision. Is this what causes a “corporate mindset”?
By what standards do you evaluate criticism of yourself or your organization? How do you help other people in your organization understand core principles, whether ethical, operational, or aesthetic?
The Romance of Socialism
Thu 19 Mar 2009 by Micah Mattix
Lessons from Hawthorne’s ‘The Blithedale Romance’
Micah Mattix turns to Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel about a utopian farming experiment in the 1840s for insight into current social challenges.Seed Corn and Spiritual Capital
Thu 05 Feb 2009 by John Seel
Remembering the Prerequisites to Wealth
John Seel offers a review essay on Spiritual Enterprise: Doing Virtuous Business by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, which speaks to the root of the world economic crisis.
