Truth, Beauty, Goodness and Unity

What do these four words have in common? What type of action do they require of people who want to exemplify them? Can one exist without the other, or does one have to exist for the other three to happen?

These are some of the question that I am trying to answer after reading Tom Morris's book, "If Aristotle Ran General Motors." This book was a required reading for my Applied Business Ethics class for my MBA, but once I opened it up, it wasn't hard to read the whole book in one sitting. (I still have to write the paper that corresponds with the reading, but my blog seems to be more important at this moment...lol) Since then, I've gone back through it and wanted to put some of Morris's points out there to see what the rest of you think.

Truth

The first (or base) universal dimension of human experience that Morris mentions is our intellectual dimension, which aims us at truth. We all need knowledge and to have ideas just as much as we need to have food, air and water. We need truth so that our minds are nourished just as our bodies are nourished by the food that we eat.

I wrote about truth in an earlier post here. I was looking at truth asking the question is there ever a time when you shouldn't tell the whole truth, or when it is okay to lie. Or how do you tell the truth when it might be very hurtful.

Here are some quotes from the book about truth that might hit home for you:

"We should cultivate an environment in which people are not afraid to tell us the truth."

"Too many workers and managers are reluctant to pass on a hard truth to the person they report to, because they are working in a corporate culture where it's not clear what the value of truth is."

"I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed" --Marcus Aurelius

While this book was written for the business person, I see how these quotes are very important to our everyday lives, in our churches, in non-profits, in politics, in mission-agencies, and in our families. We are so hung up on keeping "the peace", avoiding conflict, and/or making sure everyone is happy that we end up hiding the truth. If we were able to tell the truth without fear, think how many problems and difficulties we could avoid.

Goodness

As Mr. Morris writes about goodness he is talking about ethics and morality and what they all imply. He also writes about how our culture has failed at being good and why. Here are some of his points:

"Ethics is not primarily about the big things [ie: abortion, homosexuality, social injustice, euthanasia]; it's not the sole preserve of mind-bending dilemmas and difficult cases. It's mostly about everyday matters like how we treat the people around us and how we conduct ourselves. If we don't get it right in the little things, we're unlikely to get it right in the big things."

"The best portion of a good man's life: His little, nameless, unremembered acts of Kindness and of Love."--William Woodsworth

"A moral crisis seems to have enveloped all sectors of American-Life [not just Wall Street or in abortion clinics]. If you have any doubt, take your car to a mechanic, talk to a contractor about building a house, ask around town for a lawyer you can trust, shop for an used car, or even a new car...brackets are my comments

Apparently, the only guidelines for conduct widely in all these contexts are:

1. Look out for number one

2. Whatever you do, don't get caught

And for those who are ethically sensitive and altruistic:

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS"

We as Americans have become so wrapped up in short-term thinking and our immediate gratification. I too struggle with this, I'm not just condemning without pointing the finger at myself. Morris says that in the type of climate where short-term thinking dominates, "urgency easily pushes out the important."

Some of the questions I wrote in the margins of my book when I read about this were:

"Why do we have to be so short-term results focused? Why do we need instant gratification? When did we change from being Long-Term focused to short-term and self-centered?"

Morris wrote that when we think about the consequences of our actions we tend to think only of the immediate effects--we don't look far ahead.

Two questions that I want to take away from this reading and continue to ask myself anytime I have to make a decision:

1. What impact will my decisions and my behavior have on the people closest to me over the long-run?

2. And what sort of person am I becoming, long-term, by the decisions I make?

This book has invoked a lot of thought over the last week, and helped me to start aligning all the garbled thoughts I've had about ethics, morality, decisions I've made, and the decisions I still have to make. I feel a little bit more liberated to take my time in decision-making. That's a good feeling.

Reference

Morris, T. (1997). If Aristotle ran general motors: the new soul of business. New York, NY: Owl Books Henry Holt and Company, LLC