The Ethical Society of Boston is continuing its study of ethics that started with the summer session, 2012. A planning committee of 7 has set up a format and guidelines to continue and deepen our investigation of ethics and our culture. Our goal is to investigate different institutions and systems in our country and determine how they support, counteract, or are neutral in their support of a set of ethical values we have identified for individuals and for our society/country.
In order to focus our study we have chosen the following values as standards of individual behavior: honesty, respect, responsibility, justice, caring, courage, moderation and freedom. These values are not new but come from a long tradition in the study of ethics, starting with the Greeks. In contrast, we have selected a slightly different set of values we would like to see held in high esteem by our country. They include: honesty, transparency, accountability, justice, freedom, responsibility to the greater good and the general welfare.
As our first exploration, we have chosen to investigate how our economic system, capitalism, impacts our individual and national values. The reference source for this investigation is one of the “The Great Courses” from the Teaching Company. It is their course “Thinking about Capitalism” by Professor Jerry Z. Muller. It includes 36, half hour lectures on CDs and can be ordered by calling 1-800-832-2412 or on line at . The course can be gotten on sale for ~$60.00. Each week we will cover 6 lectures (3 hours) of material and investigate the ethical issues that developed in the constantly changing environment and philosophical discussion about capitalism. We will concentrate on how it is practiced in the United States, particularly, and how it affects our values. At the end of our study we hope to have identified at least 3 important aspects of capitalism seen in our country today that collide with our ethics/values, with justifications for the selection of these three aspects. We look forward to a lot of discussion and interaction, but we also seek to stay focused and disciplined.
Future institutions and systems that we plan to investigate include: government, education, media, entertainment, medicine, environment, and science and technology. CD courses and recent books and texts will be the main sources of information and contrast.
The meeting place for the fall is to be determined, as is most likely going to be in the area of Harvard Square.