ethics (ethical dynamics)

A Framework for Understanding and Transforming Ethical Dynamics

Abraham Chiasson

[email protected]

Premises - 1

Our contemporary world needs:

A comprehensive approach to ‘understanding and transforming’ human / social relationship dynamics – involving us all in everything we do -;

Incorporates all aspects of our human / social potentialities;

Transcends the specifics of our historical ‘ethical’ disciplines e.g., related to philosophy, religion and morality; and,

That is capable of universal application i.e., inclusive of all peoples and their aspirations.

May 2004 © Abraham Chiasson 2

Premises - 2

All relationship dynamics have 3 dimensions:

What is viewed as important – values or overall, ethical aspirations – those embedded in our social goods and social qualities -;

The manner of achieving them – action related principles and norms – (or, policies and practices); and,

The needed individual, institutional or societal behaviors – relationship commitments as to the what and, relationship qualities as to the how.

This will be described as the 3 dimensions of ‘ethics’.


Premises – 2... The world of ethics


SocialGoods

SocialQualities

Premises - 3

Overall, ethics have their origins in our human nature, not in religion or ideology.

Individual, institutional and societal realities – social goods and social qualities - are the product of ‘ethical dynamics’, not ethics per se.

Ethics and ethical dynamics are driven by our socio-political instincts for survival and growth and, are shaped by the dynamics of authority and power (defined later).

The approach is not a framework of values accompanied by principles and norms to guide our behavior in one or another situation.


Purpose (overall) -

The approach aims to provide a multi-dimensional template capable of addressing ethical issues – dynamics - for an individual, an institution or a social (societal) context as a whole .

Each of its separate frameworks can be used to address specific ethical, and we could also say, social and performance, issues.

In summary, the approach aims to give us the ‘ethical’ wherewithal to be vital actors in the building of our world as individuals, institutions and societies.


Overview -

1. Recent developments that make this approach

timely;

2. An analytical and transformational focus;

3. The connection with ‘morality’;

4. Some steps in the ‘journey’; and,

5. A glossary of key concepts.


1) Recent developments that make this approach timely - (a)

Desire (and need) for more transparency, accountability and participation in ‘political’ decision-making in both private and public institutions alike, here and around the world.

Planetary goals of sustainability, peace, and human development... are challenging the nature of institutional and societal debates.


1) Recent developments that make this approach timely - (b)

Nonetheless -

○ Connection between societal, institutional or individual realities and ethics, is tenuous at best.

○ Few ethical or managerial approaches available to connect the dynamic contribution of ethics to the goals of institutions and their organizations or, to individual development.

○ The result: many remain confused as to where ethics come from and how they evolve to bring about an ever-changing world.


2) An analytical and transformational focus – (a)

Specifically –

Facilitate an understanding of ethics as integral to ‘all that we are and all that we do’, via ‘analytical frameworks’ aimed at:

○ Giving us insights into the development and formation of both our more informal ethics, and society’s more formal ethics such as those codified in religious injunctions e.g., the Ten Commandments or government policy…


2) An analytical and transformational focus – (b)

And, –

Articulate an approach for their transformation – a ‘transformational framework’ – aimed at:

○ Creating congruent ethical synergies e.g., by giving us the wherewithal to broker our many ethical challenges, and

○ Achieving a greater sense of ethical congruency for ourselves, for our institutions and society.


3) The connection with 'morality' –

Ethics as the expression of our ‘socio-political instincts for survival and growth’ also reflect our -

○ Moral instincts - what Marc D. Hauser (in Moral Minds) describes as a moral grammar – ‘a way of dealing with right or wrong’-.

○ Moral instincts have taken shape in a number of ‘moral’ approaches and philosophies aimed at helping us deal with our human and social challenges.

○ The approach, by its universal nature, will shed light on their potential contributions.


4) The journey -

The journey is comprised of-

A multi-dimensional template of conceptual frameworks,

Applicable to any human / social situation, to help us to both understand ethical issues and to offer us avenues for their successful resolution, and

Help us grow an increasing ecology of mind and community as the ultimate goal.


A Multi-Dimensional Template: The Steps to the Journey ...


Part I - Ethics and our Human Potentialities,Social Structures and Dynamics–

1- ‘Human Potentialities’

‘Core’ human potentialities: those forces that ‘compel us – individuals, institutions and societies - and give us the opportunity’ to become who we are capable of becoming.


Part I - Ethics and our Human Potentialities,Social Structures and Dynamics –

Ethics are in synergy with our coreHuman Potentialities.


Vision / Hope

PersonalIdentity

Consciousness/

Conscious will

Sense of Self Ethics


2- Cognitive (Social) Structures and Potentialities

Core human potentialities – for individuals, institutions and societies - grow via our cognitive (social) structures and potentialities:

Those that make it possible to bring about a ‘specifically’ human world.

Cognitive potentialities apply to us as ‘individuals, institutions and societies’ e.g., all are driven by our core human potentialities.


Part I - Ethics and our Human Potentialities,Social Structures and Dynamics – ‘Cognitive (Social) Structures’




CognitivePotentialies

Cognitive & Social Structures live in the world of our Cognitive

Potentialities


‘Cognitive Dimensions’




Cognitive (Social) Structures Cognitive Potentialities – Ex.


‘Cognitive Dimensions’



Ethics and our Cognitive (Social) Structures and Potentialities

In summary:

“Our cognitive potentialities must grow together or they don’t grow at all e.g.

“Ethics must contribute to knowledge and vice versa”

Our cognitive potentialities must grow our ‘core human potentialities’.



3- Socio-Political Structures (driven by our core human potentialities)

Domains – Express and give social relevance to our cognitive potentialities;

Institutions (Individuals and Societies) – Our socio-political ‘relational’ structures; and,

Socio-political landscapes – our ‘playing field’ for the creation of ‘landscape realities’.



Socio-Political Structures



4- ‘Socio-Political Dynamics’

“Authority and power” – the capacity to inspire and control other individuals and institutions.

Authority – lanscape legitimacy to decide what is ‘right’; and

Power – ability to control the behavior or contribution of others.



Socio-Political Dynamics


Part I - Ethics and our Human Potentialities,Social Structures and Dynamics – Summary


“Ethics are the ultimate expression and driver of our search for ‘harmony’ within our individual self and between us.” (‘social potentialities’

will be addressed in Part II)

‘Living Systems’Key Characteristics

‘Mind and body are and act together’

Cognition - a continual bringing forth of a world through the process of living.

Living - a network of production processes aimed at the maintenance of its own structural integrity - ‘autopoiesis’.

In the context of autopoiesis, living systems interact via structural coupling.

Life takes place in a world of ‘dissipative structures’ where we must “shift our perception from being to becoming”.


‘Living Systems’


‘Living Systems’


‘Ethics are also the expression and driver of our search for ‘harmony’ within the universe of living

systems.”

Part II - Ethics in Practice: Towards an ecology of mind and community

“Where our ‘human and social potentialities’ – forces -,

as individuals, institutions and societies,

are increasingly in

synergy with our social realities

via

our cognitive (social) structures and potentialities.”


Part II - Ethics in Practice: Towards an ecology of mind and community – In summary: (‘social potentialities’ will be addressed in the following)




Part II

5. Social Functions: Stewardship, Governance andManagement

6. Social Potentialities / Institutional Framework

7. Social Qualities / Social Goods

8. Socio-Politial Energies


5- ‘Stewardship, Governance and Management’

Ethical dynamics do not ‘stand alone’ –

Embedded in and give life to – our core social functions: stewardship, governance, and management.

Ethics ‘live’ through these core social functions.




Ethics

Part II - Ethics in Practice: Towards an ecology of mind and community –

6- Social Potentialities / Institutional Dimensions &

“Social Qualities”

Social potentialities - ‘forces’ e.g., for empathy, belonging, and accountability… give a specific direction and substance to our ‘institutional’ relationships.

Core institutional dimensions e.g., family, community and nation – give each institution its specific social purpose as an institution.



‘Social potentialities / Institutional dimensions’



Social Potentialities / Institutional Dimensions & “Social Qualities”

Social qualities – A set of ‘individual / institutional / societal’ relational qualities. Examples:

Social qualities such as ‘fairness, loyalty and honesty’ may result from our social potentialities e.g., for belonging, contribution and synergy, in the context of institutional dimensions such as community, production and state.

May 2004 39© Abraham Chiasson

Part II - Ethics in Practice: Towards an ecology of mind and community – Social Potentialities / Institutional Dimensions & “Social Qualities”


Social Qualities


Social Potentialities / Institutional Dimensions + Institutional Domain Contributions = “Social Qualities”

Social potentialities and institutional dimensions come to life via our ‘institutional’ domain contributions.

Social qualities result from the institutional mediation (via e.g., institutional ethics) of domain contributions.

Resulting social qualities may be in synergy or not, with our ‘ethical aspirations’ or ‘overall institutional values’.





InstitutionalMediation

‘Ethics’

SocialQualities(Values)

DomainContribution

InstitutionalDimensions

SocialPotentialities



In summary:

‘Mediated’ social qualities – values – become the basis for ‘specific’ institutional domain contributions.

Social qualities can be viewed as the social energies that underpin ‘individual, institutional and societal’ domain contributions.

Social qualities – as ‘values’ - bond us together, and give us the potential for effective – collective – domain contributions.



7- Social Potentialities / Institutional Dimensions + Institutional Domain Contributions = “Social Goods”

Social goods –

As with social qualities, come to life via the institutional mediation of domain contributions. (Graphic 1)

Are driven by the social qualities – the social energy - mediating institutional domain contributions. (Graphic 2)

Are only ‘social goods’ inasmuch as they are associated with institutional values. The richer the link to ‘desired’ values, the ‘richer’ the social goods. (Graphic 2)



Social Potentialities / Institutional Dimensions + Institutional Domain Contributions = “Social Goods” (1)


InstitutionalMediation

‘Ethics’

SocialQualities /

SocialGoods

DomainContribution


SocialPotentialities


Institutional Domain Contributions + Social Qualities =

“Social Goods” (2)


Social QualitiesInst. Domain Contributions / Inst. Values

Social Goods


Social qualities + Institutional Domain contributions = “Social Goods”

In summary,

Social goods along with social qualities are the:

Substance of ethics or, what ethics aim to achieve,

Springoard – the necessary realities – for ever more sophisticated ethical manifestations, and

The basis for our social functions: stewardship, governance and management.



Social Qualities and Social Goods –Core Values / Ethical Structure

Social goods in synergy with social qualities are driven by our ‘overall’ core values / ethical structure – ethics - those

Embedded in our social functions – stewardship, governance and management,

In the context of:

On one hand, our human potentialities, cognitive (social) structures and potentialities, socio-political structures and, socio-political dynamics and,

On the other, our social potentialities, institutional dimensions and institutional framework.



Social Goods / Social qualities – Core values / Ethical Structure “Ethics”

In summary:


Human Potentialities

Social Goods/

Social Qualities

Social Potentialities

Cognitive(Social)

Structures &Potentialities

Socio-Political

Structures

Socio-Political

Dynamics


/InstitutionalFramework

Ethics

Stewardship / Governance / Management


Harnessing our Socio-Political Energies Towards More ‘Open, Shared and Responsible Ethical Dynamics’

… Socio-political energies – ethical energies - give us the ability to bring about ‘social qualities and social goods’ that will grow –

○ Our human potentialities e.g., degree of consciousness, personal identity and sense of hope… and,

○ Our social potentialities e.g., for contribution...”



Harnessing our Socio-Political Energies Towards More ‘Open, Shared and Responsible Ethical Dynamics’

… Context


Social Qualitie

s

Socio–Political‘Ethical’Energies

Social Goods

Socio-Political ‘Ethical’

Dynamics

Ecology of Mind and Community


Harnessing our Socio-Political Energies Towards More ‘Open, Shared and Responsible Ethical Dynamics’ … Issues -

2. Addressing the conditions for an ecology of social qualities and social goods (per se) – some questions -:

Do institutional social qualities help or hinder the enactment of those social qualities reflective of our ethical aspirations and those of relevant others?

To what extent does a particular social good e.g., automobiles, impact on other social goods e.g., clean air, which one drives the other?


Conclusion – Towards an ecology of mind and community

The approach has aimed to give us the wherewithal to be vital actors in the building of our world as

individuals, institutions and societies.

In efffect, permitting us to bring about -

Metaphorically – a ‘progressive’ spiral of social qualities and social goods driven by a similar progressive synergy of socio-political energies – ethical energies – those capable of giving us all more satisfying and congruent ethical manifestations.


6) Glossary - Some definitions

Ethics (in general):

Refers to the world of values e.g., of compassion, solidarity, and competitiveness, to principles and norms and, to relationship commitments and qualities.

Ethic (an ethic):

An overarching social quality e.g., love, compassion, and justice, or social good e.g., sustainability, and prosperity, bringing about a – context specific - ethical aspiration e.g., what compassion ‘means’ for the institution in its network of relationships.


6) Glossary - Some definitions…

Ethical structure:

A specific institutional ethic, say of social justice, is usually a component of a mediated ethical structure – more specifically of a hierarchy of ethical aspirations (core values) - for the institution in its network of institutional relationships.

Ethical framework:

An individual, an institution or society’s specific ethical structure or, core values, along with its principles and norms, and relationship commitments and qualities.



Ethical principles:

Behavioural / action principles bringing about a set of relationship commitments and qualities capable of growing a relevant individual, institutional or societal ethical structure.

Ethical norms:

Formalized expectations regarding the application of ethical principles to related relationship commitments and qualities e.g., applicable to questions such as: to who, when, where, how...



Ethical:

Generally, will refer to the world of ethics: core values, their principles and norms and, to relationship commitments and qualities.

From a normative perspective, ‘ethical’ will refer to ethical dynamics that are open, shared and responsible.

Ethical dynamics:

Refer to the synergy, or lack thereof, of relationship commitments and qualities per se or with their associated ethical principles and norms, or with their overarching core values and vice versa.


ethics (ethical dynamics)

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